The government of US President Donald Trump is no longer allowed to apply certain tactics in raids against allegedly illegal immigrants in southern California. A district judge ordered the Ministry of Homeland Protection by injunction to refrain from arrest if there is no sufficient suspicion that the person concerned is illegally in the country. The ethnicity that is assumed on the basis of external characteristics, the language or place of work are no reason to set a person, according to the court document.
The decision is highlighting the tactics that the authorities at raids have been using in the Los Angeles area since June in order to find and set irregular immigrants. At Trump’s sharp migration course and the authorities’ approach, weeks of protests had sparked, against which Trump even sent the national guard onto the street.
Suspected: field workers, street sellers
The Civil Rights Organization ACLU in South California complained against the procedure on behalf of five affected people and organizations for the rights of immigrants. Using the example of the five plaintiffs, it becomes clear what is behind the accusation that surveys and arrests along externally recognizable features have been made, not because of a concrete suspicion.
One of the plaintiffs worked in a car wash, where he was visited three times by civil servants and was arrested in the end, even though he has the US citizenship, can be read in the court document. Checks also targeted field workers, street sellers, workers in recycling centers or warehouses.
US district judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong had that the Ministry of Heimatzustie had to develop guidelines for civil servants in order to determine a “reasoned suspicion”, the ethnicity of a person who spoke of the language or her accent, her profession or her “presence in a certain location” such as a bus stop. The Trump government failed to provide information on which arrests were carried out.
Court: legal assistance must be granted
The judge – by Trump’s predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, also ordered that detainees must be granted to legal counsel. The “New York Times” reported that the injunction was ten days. In the coming weeks, however, a more comprehensive preoccupation with the case will be expected, since the complaining organizations want to achieve a long -term decision.
Trump’s promise
Unsurprisingly, the government was very surprisingly criticized – and no signs of giving in. “A district judge undermines the will of the American people,” said “Politico” the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Homeland, Tricia McLaughlin. “America’s brave men and women remove murderers, MS-13 gang members, pedophiles, rapists-really the worst of the bad,” said McLaughlin.
Trump had promised in the election campaign to start the largest deportation program in American history. When there was violent riots on the sidelines of peaceful protests against the authorities’ approach to immigrants, the Republican sent the National Guard against the will of California – a break.
A particularly large number of people live in Los Angeles without papers: almost a million. The protests were directed against civil servants from the US immigration authority ICE, which should find migrants without valid residence status for deportation. The authority is subordinate to the Ministry of Homeland.
