A federal judge in Washington, D.C. restricts what ICE can do without a warrant or probable cause of flight risk.
Ryan Knappenberger reports:
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.”
Read more at Courthouse News.