Judge Halts ICE’s Use of Warrantless DC Immigration Arrests (2)

Latinos in Washington, DC, are entitled to early relief in their suit accusing ICE officers and federal agents of unlawfully targeting them for immigration arrests without warrants and probable cause.

The plaintiffs showed they are likely to succeed in establishing the officials are engaging in practices that violate the Immigration and Nationality Act, Judge Beryl A. Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said Tuesday order partially granting a preliminary injunction.

US officials must stop enforcing their policy of conducting warrantless civil immigration arrests without probable cause to believe an arrestee is likely to escape before officials can obtain an administrative warrant, Howell said.

Howell cited Chief Border Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino telling the press, for example, that officers only need to show reasonable suspicion to make an arrest. Those public statements are backed by examples of more than two dozen declarations describing about 40 warrantless civil immigration arrests performed without requisite probable cause findings, the judge said.

Howell additionally noted that White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller instructed ICE to stop developing target lists of immigrants, and instead should “‘just go out there’ and arrest people right away at Home Depots or 7-Elevens.” And, when a former acting US Attorney for the Eastern District of California informed Bovino that they couldn’t make civil immigration arrests without probable cause, they reportedly lost their job, the judge said.

Howell critiqued government attorneys, who said during a hearing that Trump administration officials don’t necessarily understand “legal terms of art” like “reasonable suspicion and probable cause.”

“This is a remarkable assertion,” the judge said. “On its face, the government’s defense appears to be that the individuals behind these statements are ignorant or incompetent, or both. These statements, however, were made by high-ranking officials—including Secretary Noem’s principal communications advisor and a Chief Border Patrol Agent—in their official capacity to the press, on DHS’s official website, and on DHS’s official social media account.”

The ruling comes amidst a broader effort by immigration advocates against the Trump administration’s policies. A Colorado federal judge last week ordered DHS to temporarily stop its practice of making warrantless immigration-related arrests in the state.

The complaint here, filed Sept. 25, said mass immigration stops and arrests of Latinos in DC are the result of “blatant” racial profiling.

Immigration officers may conduct warrantless arrests only if they have probable cause to believe a person is in the country unlawfully and if they are an escape risk, the court said. Whether a person is likely to escape before officers get a warrant requires an individualized fact determination.

But, Howell said, statements from Trump administration officials show “an intentional policy and practice” of conducting warrantless arrests without probable cause and without considering escape risk, in violation of federal law, and they reflect an improper attempt to conflate arrests with civil immigration stops.

While the government has a legitimate concern about judicial micromanagement of individual arrests, the injunction precludes enforcement of the policy and practice of making warrantless arrests, not warrantless arrests themselves, Howell said.

The court also partially granted the plaintiffs’ request for class certification. They can move forward with an unassessed escape risk subclass, which consists of all persons arrested since Aug. 11, or will be arrested, for alleged violations without a warrant, and without a pre-arrest, individualized assessment of probable cause that the person poses an escape risk.

Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of the District of Columbia, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Covington & Burling LLP, Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, CASA Inc., and National Immigration Project represent the plaintiffs.

The case is Escobar Molina v. US Dep’t of Homeland Sec., D.D.C., No. 25-cv-3417, 12/2/25.