ICE: Trump's Stormtroopers Take a Hit in Court

California judges rule ICE must have probable cause, must allow detainees to have lawyers.

AI GENERATED IMAGE BY CHAIWIT / ADOBE STOCK. Interestingly (frighteningly) there is not one single conventional photograph of any ICE agent on Adobe Stock. That’s how unsafe it is for photographers and even for a company as huge as Adobe to risk the wrath of the Trump Administration by photographing this travesty in real time. No reporter, photographer, newspaper, judge, or brown person with a Spanish accent is safe. But we have great computer graphic wizards giving us art. Thank you.

So, what’s ICE been doing this week—other than arresting a workers rights’ advocate, putting a protester at a marijuana farm in the hospital in critical condition, and terrorizing children in MacArthur Park to the point that L.A. Mayor Karen Bass had to evict them in person? Oh, the usual.

But this week the ACLU had a significant victory in its cases against ICE, in which it argued ICE must be forced to show probable cause in every case where they detain someone.

Here’s the complaint from the ACLU which was heard in court this week. CNN summarizes:

A federal judge on Friday [yesterday] found that the Department of Homeland Security has been making stops and arrests in Los Angeles immigration raids without probable cause and ordered the department to stop detaining individuals based solely on race, spoken language or occupation.

US District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, ordered that DHS must develop guidance for officers to determine “reasonable suspicion” outside of the apparent race or ethnicity of a person, the language they speak or their accent, “presence at a particular location” such as a bus stop or “the type of work one does.”

Friday’s ruling comes after the ACLU of Southern California brought a case against the Trump administration last week on behalf of five people and immigration advocacy groups, alleging that DHS — which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement — has made unconstitutional arrests and prevented detainees’ access to attorneys.

The Department of Homeland Security—which operates ICE away from the border and in American cities under the specious claim that America is facing an “invasion”—claimed it was detaining people based on intel or “trend analysis,” denying it was making stops based on race or ethnicity or places where immigrants are thought to gather.

However, the DHS could not provide evidence of even one use of intel or the alleged “trend analysis” to detain someone suspected of being an illegal immigrant.

“It’s hard for the court to believe you couldn’t find one case with a report of why someone was targeted,” Judge Frimpong said Thursday.

In a separate temporary restraining order, Frimpong blocked DHS from denying the detainees’ access to counsel, including visits and calls, in a holding facility referred to as “B-18” in court documents. [CNN] At B-18, it is also alleged that detainees are denied beds, medicine, and showers.

Also notes CNN:

Last month, the Trump administration called for ICE to expand deportation efforts in Democratic cities and “do all in their power” to achieve mass deportations. Trump also ordered the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles last month in response to protests against his administration’s immigration raids. The administration previously sued the city of Los Angeles over its so-called “sanctuary city” policy.

California governor Gavin Newsom and L.A. City Mayor Karen Bass applauded the ruling.

These are temporary restraining orders while major cases regarding the legality and Constitutionality of the uses now made of ICE—whose agents are now masked with uniforms bearing no insignia and driving unmarked cars—so they can avoid being identified, sued, and charged with crimes.

In a separate development, ICE agents in Georgia are detaining suspected illegals and then going to the justice department to obtain arrest warrants AFTER arrests.

We will keep watching this. The development of a secret police force that can escape identification and responsibility is a fundamental building block of tyranny and the kinds of police states it spawns.