A federal judge in the District has sharply curtailed the Trump administration’s ability to carry out immigration arrests in the nation’s capital, issuing a preliminary injunction that prohibits agents from detaining people without warrants unless officials can show probable cause that a person is both in the country illegally and likely to escape before a warrant is obtained.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that immigration officers had been conducting widespread warrantless arrests across District neighborhoods with large Latino populations, relying on patrols and checkpoints that civil liberties groups said swept up residents without the legally required assessment of flight risk. Court filings include sworn statements from individuals who said they were stopped and arrested without warrants, and attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that public remarks from senior officials revealed the government was not following the standard required under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Administration lawyers denied the existence of a policy allowing warrantless arrests without probable cause. But Howell determined the groups challenging the practice had, in her words, “established a substantial likelihood of an unlawful policy and practice by defendants of conducting warrantless civil immigration arrests without probable cause.”
She wrote that “defendants’ systemic failure to apply the probable cause standard, including the failure to consider escape risk, directly violates immigration law and the Department of Homeland Security’s implementing regulations.”
The injunction requires that any federal agent making a warrantless civil immigration arrest in Washington must document the “specific, particularized facts” supporting probable cause and the belief that the person would likely escape before a warrant could be issued. The government must share that documentation with attorneys for the plaintiffs.
The judge compared her decision to similar rulings in Colorado and California, where federal courts previously found that immigration officials had relied on practices that did not meet legal standards for arrests.
A separate federal filing revealed the administration has intensified enforcement efforts in Washington since early August, when it declared a crime emergency in D.C. In a related case, Howell noted that one analysis recorded 943 immigration arrests between Aug. 7 and Sept. 9, accounting for more than 40% of all arrests citywide during that period. Her ruling also pointed to public statements from senior officials, including Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who publicly suggested that a lower threshold should apply to immigration arrests. Howell called those comments “blatant misstatements” of the law.
The judge rejected the Justice Department’s attempt to characterize senior officials’ remarks as misunderstandings, writing that it was a “remarkable” suggestion that top policymakers were unaware of the meaning of probable cause. She added that federal agents’ reluctance to identify themselves clearly during arrests heightened fear within communities.
“Requiring defendants to put pen to paper and explain who made each arrest and why constitutes the bare minimum to ensure defendants are compliant with the Constitution,” she wrote.
The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to inquiries about Howell’s ruling.
The decision comes at a moment when the administration is carrying out a sweeping overhaul of immigration courts and enforcement practices. Members of Congress have raised new concerns about due process after more than 14 tenured immigration judges were dismissed in recent weeks, part of more than 90 terminations this year.
Rep. Juan Vargas and Sen. Adam Schiff introduced legislation that would limit who can be appointed as temporary immigration judges, saying the administration’s decision to bring in military lawyers without immigration law experience risks unfair outcomes.
In a statement to NPR, Schiff said the administration’s actions have “fundamentally impacted the landscape of our justice system.”
One recently terminated judge, Jeremiah Johnson, told NPR that he was removed without explanation after seven years on the bench, even as new Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyers were being trained in his courtroom.
“I was fired for doing my job,” Johnson said. “And frankly, I think this administration doesn’t want judges following the law.”