U.S. Marshals Lack Authority to Make Civil Immigration Arrests

U.S. marshals have been ordered by the U.S District Court for the District of Columbia to stop making civil immigration arrests because they don’t have authority to do so.

Judge Royce C. Lamberth’s Thursday opinion grants a preliminary injunction prohibiting the U.S. Marshals Service from seizing or detaining individuals for whom U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has issued detainers absent some lawful independent justification.

In granting the injunction, Lamberth also certified the plaintiffs’ proposed class, comprised of all indigent criminal defendants in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia who have been, are, or will be detained by U.S. ...