Judge orders Trump administration to halt warrantless immigration arrests in District of Columbia

WASHINGTON (CN) — A federal judge Tuesday night ordered the Trump administration to cease its campaign of arresting immigrants in Washington, D.C. without a warrant or probable cause of a flight risk, warning that the White House’s mistreatment of immigrants could put Americans overseas at risk.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that, while federal agents may have the authority to make warrantless immigration arrests, the way that authority has been used on the immigrant community in Washington was likely unlawful.

“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 before an administrative warrant can be obtained,” Howell wrote in the 88-page opinion.

She further certified a class, which she referred to as the “Unassisted Escape Risk Class,” that includes all individuals who, since President Donald Trump’s Aug. 11 “crime emergency,” have been or will be arrested without a warrant and without a pre-arrest, individualized assessment of probable cause.

On Aug. 11, Trump invoked Section 740 of the Home Rule Act — a 1973 federal statute granting local control of the District of Columbia to a city government — to effectively federalize the Metropolitan Police Department by declaring a “crime emergency.”

Under the emergency, Trump activated the D.C. National Guard throughout the city, leading several Republican governors to deploy their own National Guard troops. Federal agents began patrolling the streets with MPD officers, as the troops are not generally authorized to make arrests despite being the face of the crackdown.

According to recently reported numbers, more than 3,500 people have been arrested by federal agents following Trump’s declaration, with more than 40%, or 1,400, being immigration related.

Howell, a Barack Obama appointee, slammed Trump’s characterization of all immigrants who entered the U.S. without permission as “illegal alien criminals,” as a clear misunderstanding of immigration law.

“First, ‘as a general rule, it is not a crime for a removable alien to remain present in the United States,’” Howell wrote, citing the Supreme Court’s decision in Arizona v. United States.  “As a legal matter, an immigration status violation is a civil violation. Consequently, viewing all immigrants potentially subject to removal as criminals is, as a legal matter, plain wrong.”

She added that the Supreme Court made clear in *Arizona — *where the high court ruled 5-3 to strike down Arizona’s infamous “Show Me Your Papers” policy authorizing warrantless immigration arrests — that the “perceived mistreatment of aliens in the U.S. may lead to harmful reciprocal treatment of American citizens abroad.”

A coalition of immigrant rights groups, led by the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, sued the Trump administration over its warrantless arrests policy on Sept. 25, arguing the practice has been overwhelmingly used against the Latino community in the nation’s capital and has swept up multiple U.S. citizens.

José Molina, a 47-year-old man from El Salvador who has lived in Washington for 25 years and has maintained valid Temporary Protected Status since 2001, was wrongfully arrested by ICE. The agents detained him overnight at a processing center in Chantilly, Virginia, before an ICE supervisor realized Molina had valid TPS status, which statutorily prohibits ICE from detaining him, and released him.

N.S., an anonymous 51-year-old man from Venezuela, has lived in Washington since 2024 with a pending asylum application for fear of persecution if he returned to Venezuela.

On Aug. 12, an agent with a DEA vest and ICE hat stopped N.S. in a Home Depot parking lot, where he had just finished shopping, and arrested him without a warrant or asking any questions. N.S. was held in various detention centers around the country for four weeks before agents released him on his own recognizance.

Aditi Shah, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of D.C. and counsel for the plaintiffs, celebrated Howell’s decision in an email to Courthouse News.

“The government’s policy and practice of arresting people without a warrant and without probable cause in Washington, D.C., disregards important limits Congress has established for civil immigration arrests and has caused immense harm to immigrant communities in D.C.,” Shah said. “The court’s decision is a vital reminder that federal officials and agents are required to follow the law.”

Tuesday’s decision comes as the Trump administration moved to pause all immigration applications from 19 countries it has deemed “high risk,” including Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

Trump pushed for the blanket ban in the wake of the Nov. 26 fatal attack on two National Guard members in downtown Washington, for which a 29-year-old man from Afghanistan faces first-degree murder, assault and firearm charges.

The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, pleaded not guilty to the charges from his hospital bed while virtually attending his initial court appearance Tuesday.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.

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