A federal judge sharply restricted how the Trump administration can conduct immigration arrests in Washington, D.C., stopping short of an outright ban but blocking the broad dragnet tactics federal agents have used since the White House’s August law enforcement surge.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, ruled Tuesday night that while federal immigration officers may make warrantless civil arrests under the Immigration and Nationality Act, they cannot do so in the sweeping manner that has unfolded across the nation’s capital. Going forward, officers must either obtain an administrative warrant or have particularized probable cause that a person is both unlawfully present and likely to flee before a warrant can be secured.
“Defendants are preliminarily enjoined from enforcing their policy of conducting warrantless civil immigration arrests without probable cause to believe that the arrestee is likely to escape,” Howell wrote in the 88-page order. She also certified a class covering anyone arrested without a warrant and without an individualized flight risk assessment after President Donald Trump invoked Section 740 of the Home Rule Act on Aug. 11.
While the decision marks a blow for the Trump administration, the court did not strip Immigration and Customs Enforcement of its long-standing statutory authority to conduct warrantless arrests in limited circumstances. But it did prohibit the blanket practice that resulted in more than 1,400 immigration-related arrests since Trump effectively federalized the Metropolitan Police Department and activated the D.C. National Guard as part of his “crime emergency.”
Immigrant-rights groups backed by the American Civil Liberties Union argued the government had turned that authority into a roving license to stop and detain Latino residents and even U.S. citizens.
The court highlighted cases like José Molina — a longtime D.C. resident with valid temporary protected status who was detained overnight despite being legally shielded from arrest — and a Venezuelan asylum-seeker known as N.S., who was detained in a Home Depot parking lot, claimed that immigration officers asked no questions and shuttled him through detention centers for weeks.
Howell also rejected the administration’s portrayal of all removable immigrants as “criminals,” noting that immigration violations are civil matters and citing the Supreme Court’s warning in Arizona v. United States that mistreatment of noncitizens can prompt reciprocal harm to U.S. citizens abroad. Ever since the White House began its crime surge in the nation’s capital, more than 3,500 people have been arrested by federal agents, with more than 40% of those arrests being immigration related.
Howell also ordered the Department of Homeland Security to document the specific facts underlying any future warrantless arrest in the District and turn that information over to plaintiffs’ attorneys. DHS did not respond to requests for comment.
Judges in Washington have invited criticism with their aggressive rulings against the Trump administration, particularly Howell, who was singled out by Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this year when Bondi accused her and two others of failing to be “impartial.”
“They are district judges trying to control our entire country, and they are trying to obstruct [President] Donald Trump’s agenda,” Bondi said on Fox News in March.
USCIS FREEZES IMMIGRATION REQUESTS FROM 19 COUNTRIES
The ruling lands as the administration separately moves to halt all immigration applications from 19 “high-risk” countries following the Nov. 26 killings of two National Guard members.
Howell’s decision mirrors two other cases currently pending in Colorado and California brought by the ACLU.