Federal judge bars immigration stops based on Latino appearance across Southern California
Editorial illustration — Press Pass USAA federal judge in Los Angeles has ordered immigration agents across Southern California to stop detaining people based on their Latino appearance, ruling that the workers who sued are likely to prove agents have been doing exactly that.
U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong signed the preliminary injunction on October 23 in Vasquez Perdomo v. Mullin. The order was filed under seal and became public on October 29; NPR reported on the ruling on Sunday, November 1.
The injunction bars federal immigration officers from enforcing a practice of detentive stops based on racial stereotyping in the Central District of California, which covers Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Stops at ports of entry, checkpoints and other functional equivalents of the border are exempt.
"The Findings of Fact lead to the inexorable conclusion that Defendants maintain an unwritten policy, practice, and pattern of detaining individuals because they appeared to be Latino or Latino and working class," Frimpong wrote. "This does not constitute reasonable suspicion, and it is not permissible under the Constitution."
Under the order, agents developing reasonable suspicion must consider the totality of the circumstances. They may not rely solely on a person's apparent status as low-income or working-class and Latino — even when the person they are looking for is allegedly low-income or working-class and Latino.
A preliminary injunction is not a final verdict: it holds while the case continues. Frimpong herself noted that the order "is not a final decision on whether the Government is, in fact, following an unlawful policy." The court also partly certified a class of people affected by the practice, according to the United Farm Workers, one of the groups supporting the case.
The case has already reached the Supreme Court once. In September 2025, the justices stayed an earlier order by Frimpong in the same case, without a majority opinion. The administration filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit on October 28, according to the Los Angeles Times, and the fight over whether the new injunction stands is now before the appeals court.
The ruling comes from a lawsuit brought by workers and immigrant-rights groups, including the ACLU of Southern California, challenging suspicionless immigration stops in the Los Angeles area. For now, in the seven covered counties, looking Latino — or working at a car wash, or waiting outside a home-improvement store — is not, by itself, a legal basis for an immigration stop.
Sources: NPR (Nov. 1, 2026); Los Angeles Times (Oct. 29, 2026, as reported); U.S. District Court, Central District of California, order granting in part preliminary injunction, Vasquez Perdomo v. Mullin (Oct. 23, 2026); Public Counsel case page; United Farm Workers statement (Oct. 2026).
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