Overview

• U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston barred Border Patrol agents in California's Eastern District from conducting warrantless stops and arrests without reasonable suspicion or probable cause of flight risk.
• The ruling stems from an ACLU lawsuit filed after a January operation, where agents allegedly targeted farmworkers based on appearance, leading to 78 arrests with no prior criminal or immigration history for most detainees.
• The injunction requires Border Patrol to document and report all warrantless stops and arrests every 60 days, establishing accountability measures during ongoing litigation.
• Judge Thurston certified the case as a class action, extending protections to all individuals subjected to stops or arrests without legal justification in the region.
• Despite new training issued by Border Patrol, the court found the updated policies insufficient to prevent future violations, as similar enforcement tactics were recently reported outside the injunction's jurisdiction.