US Attorney Dismisses Activist Judge’s ICE Ruling: ‘Will Continue’

Bill Essayli, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, announced that a federal judge’s controversial ruling that seeks to halt immigration enforcement operations in the Los Angeles area will not alter U.S. Immigration and Customs (ICE) strategies.

A federal judge in Los Angeles late Friday issued a sweeping temporary restraining order (TRO) against ICE, claiming that the agency “likely violated” constitutional protections through its immigration enforcement actions in California.

In a 53-page order issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, a Biden appointee, barred agents from conducting detective stops in the Central District of California unless agents have “reasonable suspicion” that a person is in the country unlawfully. The judge’s order specifically bars agents from relying solely on race or ethnicity, speaking Spanish or English with an accent, location, or type of work when forming suspicion, citing the Fourth Amendment.

The order also requires ICE to keep and turn over detailed records of each stop and agents’ reasoning for them, develop official guidance for determining “reasonable suspicion,” and implement mandatory training for agents.

There is a consensus that the Trump administration is likely to appeal the ruling, given its potential to significantly hinder immigration enforcement efforts. Legal experts suggest that the case could eventually reach the Supreme Court, where the balance between federal immigration authority and individual rights might be further clarified.

In response to the decision, Essayli stated that Frimpong’s ruling will not have any impact on the way ICE conducts its operations in the central district.

“We strongly disagree with the allegations in the lawsuit and maintain that our agents have never detained individuals without proper legal justification,” he said. “Our federal agents will continue to enforce the law and abide by the U.S. Constitution.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who has been threatened with prosecution by the Trump Administration if she escalates her efforts to interfere with federal immigration law, praised Frimpong’s decision in a statement of her own. “Today, the Court ruled in favor of the United States Constitution, of American values and decency — this is an important step toward restoring safety, security and defending the rights of all Angelenos,” Bass said in a statement.

“Los Angeles has been under assault by the Trump Administration as masked men grab people off the street, chase working people through parking lots and march through children’s summer camps. We went to court against the administration because we will never accept these outrageous and un-American acts as normal,” she continued.

While speaking with Fox News, Essayli suggested that Bass and other Democrat leaders are contributing to a climate that has led to an unprecedented rise in attacks on federal agents. Just this week, a man fired a handgun at federal agents in Ventura County, California, while 11 people were indicted in North Texas in connection with an ambush-style attack on an ICE facility.

“You have the politicians in California who are being openly hostile to the federal government. We are doing our job. We are enforcing federal immigration laws as written by Congress. If Karen Bass didn’t like the law, she should have changed it when she was in Congress,” Essayli said.

“But instead what she’s doing is she’s signaling to the public that it’s okay to stand up to federal agents to obstruct them, to impede them, and yes, in some cases, to attack them. So we are not going to be dissuaded. This is why the military is here. It’s so critical that we have the military protecting our agents,” he continued. “And to Ms. Bass, we will not be intimidated and we will not be deterred from accomplishing our mission.”