A federal judge has issued a major ruling restricting the Trump administration’s ability to carry out immigration arrests in Washington, D.C., without proper legal justification. Late Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell granted a preliminary injunction preventing federal agents from detaining individuals in the capital unless they have a warrant or specific probable cause showing the person is both undocumented and an imminent flight risk. The injunction came in response to a lawsuit filed by civil liberties and immigrant rights groups against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Judge Howell’s decision underscores long-standing requirements under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which only allows warrantless civil immigration arrests when officers have strong, particularized evidence that a person is likely to flee before a warrant can be secured. Attorneys representing the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups argued that federal officers were routinely violating these standards. They presented sworn statements from individuals allegedly detained without warrants, along with claims that officers had been conducting patrols and informal checkpoints in Latino neighborhoods across Washington, stopping residents indiscriminately. They also cited remarks from administration officials as evidence that the legally mandated probable cause standard was not being followed.
Government attorneys denied that any unlawful policy existed, but Howell concluded that the plaintiffs had shown a substantial likelihood that immigration authorities were engaging in systemic violations. In her ruling, she wrote that the evidence suggested officers were repeatedly making arrests without evaluating whether the targeted individuals posed an escape risk, a requirement set by federal law and Homeland Security regulations. She called this failure a direct breach of statutory protections.
As part of the injunction, Howell mandated that any officer performing a warrantless civil immigration arrest in Washington must record the specific facts that justified the decision, including why the person was believed to be a flight risk. That documentation must then be provided to the plaintiffs’ legal team for review. The ruling mirrors similar court decisions in Colorado and California where judges also found patterns of unlawful stops and arrests. In an earlier, related case in Los Angeles, a separate federal judge had issued an order blocking agents from stopping people solely based on characteristics such as race or language, though the Supreme Court later lifted that order.
Judge Howell’s decision marks another significant legal pushback against aggressive immigration enforcement tactics, reinforcing that federal officers must adhere to established constitutional and statutory standards even in civil immigration matters.
