Judge keeps fight to end LA ICE patrols alive

(CN) — A federal judge has declined to dismiss a broad legal challenge to roving Immigration and Customs Enforcement patrols that swept across the Los Angeles region this past summer.

U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong issued rulings Wednesday and Thursday in two lawsuits, one brought by individual plaintiffs and civil rights organizations and another by more than 20 cities and LA County.

The groups claim ICE agents stopped and detained people without legal justification. Some were held for hours at a processing facility known as B-18, which reports describe as lacking beds, showers or medical facilities, and in some cases were denied access to an attorney. The plaintiffs seek a court order halting the patrols and ensuring everyone detained can speak with a lawyer.

The government had moved to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing the plaintiffs provided only a handful of what it characterized as isolated incidents insufficient to support a broad legal challenge. The feds also argued the cities lack standing because any harm they experienced stemmed from their own sanctuary policies rather than the ICE patrols.

Frimpong, a Joe Biden appointee, rejected both arguments.

“It is simply untrue that the plaintiffs have only alleged ‘isolated incidents,’” she wrote. “The actual allegations they have made, taken as true and read together, are part of what led this court to find that plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged they face a ‘real and immediate threat’ of future detention without reasonable suspicion.

“that the allegations only describe ‘isolated incidents’ is patently false.”

As for the cities, Frimpong rejected the administration’s claim that sanctuary cities were responsible for any harm due to their own policies. She found the cities had adequately shown injuries that were concrete, traceable, and capable of being remedied — the three-part constitutional test for standing.

Cities permitted to proceed include some of the most populous in the region and span three southland counties: Anaheim, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Santa Ana, Santa Monica and Santa Barbara, among others.

Frimpong dismissed as moot claims challenging the detention of Vasquez Perdomo, Carlos Osorto and Villegas Molina since they have been released from custody.

The case has already produced significant pretrial rulings, including temporary restraining orders that limit detention practices at B-18 and require detainees to have access to lawyers. The parties will now continue litigating the underlying constitutional questions, including whether the patrols violate the Fourth Amendment and whether the denial of counsel at B-18 violates the Fifth Amendment.

Representatives for the U.S. Department of Justice and the city of Los Angeles did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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