Federal Judge Bars Immigration Stops Based on Appearance Across Southern California

A federal judge in Los Angeles has barred immigration agents across seven Southern California counties from detaining people based on appearance alone, under a preliminary injunction that became public on Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong signed the order on Oct. 23 in Vasquez Perdomo v. Mullin, according to court papers reported by the Los Angeles Times and other outlets. The order was largely sealed until Oct. 29.

It covers Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Stops at ports of entry, checkpoints and their border equivalents are exempt.

What the order requires

Under the order, agents must have individualized reasonable suspicion before detaining a person for immigration enforcement. An agent “must consider the totality of circumstances” and “may not rely solely on apparent status as low-income or working-class and Latino, even when an identified target is allegedly low-income or working-class and Latino,” the order says.

Frimpong found the plaintiffs will likely be able to prove a practice of stopping people in the Los Angeles area because they appeared Latino, or Latino and working class. She wrote that such a practice would violate the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable seizures and the Fifth Amendment guarantee of equal protection. She also wrote that the order “is not a final decision on whether the Government is, in fact, following an unlawful policy.”

Evidence in the case included body-camera video and text messages in which agents used slurs for Latinos, according to reports on the order. The order describes a June 18, 2025 raid on a Whittier car wash that followed a Google search for nearby car washes, and agents moving through a Home Depot and a neighboring gas station. In agents’ reports, the order says, “day laborer” was used as shorthand for a person who appeared Latino and working class.

Appeal already filed

The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit on Oct. 28 and asked for a stay, the Los Angeles Times reported. The injunction stays in effect while the appeal is pending. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said its agents are focused on protecting the American people.

The plaintiffs include five Latino men, the Los Angeles Worker Center Network, the United Farm Workers and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California represents them. Frimpong also partly certified a class of people affected by the practice.

“For over a year, agents have been showing up at car washes and taking people without a warrant, never asking whether they have a family and a home to return to,” said Flor Melendrez, executive director of CLEAN Carwash Worker Center, a member of the Los Angeles Worker Center Network.

The order follows an earlier temporary restraining order in the case that the Supreme Court stayed last year, which allowed the challenged practices to continue, according to MyNewsLA.

Reporting based on coverage by the Los Angeles Times, MyNewsLA and the United Farm Workers.