ICE ramps up constitutional violations in Los Angeles, judge orders government to comply

A judge ordered the Trump administration to stop arresting people in Los Angeles without "reasonable suspicion" and to allow detainees access to an attorney.

On July 10, the judge found that ICE has violated the 4th and 5th Amendment rights of immigrants and citizens by stopping and arresting individuals without cause and detaining individuals without access to counsel.

This decision comes in the wake of events that began on June 6 when ICE agents set upon the city of Los Angeles and began arresting en mas people alleged to be illegal immigrants. ICE agents targeted farms, car washes, street vendors, parks, bus stops, a church and more.

As a result, individuals detained or arrested by ICE sued the Trump administration in the District Court of the Central District of California.

In its findings of fact, the district court summarized the ongoing activities of ICE in harrowing detail.

"Agents and officers approach suddenly and in large numbers in military style or SWAT clothing, heavily armed with weapons displayed, masked and with their vests displaying a generic ‘POLICE’ patch (if any display at all)," the district court said. "When individuals have tried to avoid an encounter with agents or officers, they have been followed and pushed to the ground, sometimes even beaten, and then taken away."

ICE has detained around 300 individuals in basement of the federal building in Los Angeles since June 6. Detainees have been held under inhumane conditions, denied access to an attorney and some have been transported away in unmarked vehicles to unknown locations.

Unlawful searches and seizures

The district court found that ICE agents violated the 4th Amendment by detaining individuals without cause. The 4th Amendment protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures. This includes more than arrests.

"Whenever a police officer accosts an individual and restrains his freedom to walk away, he has 'seized' that person," the Supreme Court said in Terry v. Ohio.

For law enforcement to seize an individual, the officer must have "reasonable suspicion" that a law is being broken by that person. ICE disregarded this fundamental constitutional requirement while conducting searches and seizures without cause against both immigrants and citizens alike, according to the district court.

In the early morning of June 28, Vasquez Perdomo and several of his co-workers were waiting at a bus stop to be picked up for work. Four cars converged on their location and a half-dozen masked and armed agents jumped out on either side of them. Perdomo and his co-workers tried to leave but were surrounded, grabbed, handcuffed and thrown into the vehicles.

Perdomo's identification wasn't checked until after agents had driven to a nearby parking lot. No warrant was shown. As of the district court’s decision, Perdomo and his co-workers were being held in the basement of the federal building in Los Angeles.

But ICE did not limit its disregard for 4th Amendment rights to immigrants alone. Two of the plaintiffs in the case are citizens of the United States, but that didn't slow down ICE.

In the afternoon of June 12, Jason Brian Gavidia was working at a towing yard in Los Angeles county when ICE agents arrived.

Upon seeing him, a masked ICE agent ordered Gavidia to "strop right there." Agents approached and asked if Gavidia was an American. He informed them that he was indeed an American citizen. The agents did not accept this answer and demanded to know what hospital Gavidia was born in.

Gavidia knew he was born in East LA but did not know the specific hospital. And when he told them, the agents pushed Gavidia up against a metal fence, twisted his arm behind his back and asked the same question two more times. Then, Gavidia told the agents he could show them his Real ID. When Gavidia showed the agents his Real ID, they took it for verification but never returned it.

Hernandez Virmontes, also a U.S. citizen, had a similar encounter with ICE.

On the morning of June 18, Virmontes was working at a car wash. ICE agents arrived but did not identify themselves. The agents asked Virmontes if he was a citizen and for his ID. Virmontes told them he was a citizen and provided his ID as requested.

However, the agents then told him the ID wasn't enough and that they were taking him because he didn't have his passport. After being detained for 20 minutes, ICE verified Virmontes' citizenship and they brought him back to the car wash.

Conditions of confinement

The people who are arrested by ICE face mass confinement under inhumane conditions, but not in jail under the supervision of ordinary law enforcement. Instead, detainees are packed into the basement of the federal building at 300 North Los Angeles Street.

"Individuals taken to the [holding facility] are kept in small windowless rooms with dozens or more other detainees in cramped quarters. Some rooms are so cramped that detainees cannot sit, let alone lie down, for hours at a time," the district court said.

According to the district court, individuals are also denied basic necessities such as food, water and medicine.

"Detainees are also routinely deprived of food, and some have not been given water other than what comes out of the combined sink and toilet in the group detention room. Upon asking for food, detainees have been told repeatedly that the facility has run out."

Denied access to counsel

To make matters worse, the detainees have been denied their constitutional right to consult with an attorney and some have been whisked away in unmarked vehicles.

On June 6, attorneys attempted to access the facility to advise detainees of their rights but were denied entry. The following day, numerous unmarked white vans left the facility with a group of detainees.

"On the rare occasions when attorneys and family members were allowed access to their clients or loved ones, they were made to wait hours at a time to see them and the resulting visits were limited to a mere five to 10 minutes," the district court said.

In many cases, attorneys and family members have been unable to determine whether a particular individual is even detained at the federal building or if they have been transferred to another facility.

Officers at the federal building have refused to provide clear answers about individuals' whereabouts or refused to answer questions entirely.

Potentially dark future

The actions of ICE raise serious questions about the ability of the courts to protect 4th and 5th Amendment rights.

The remedy recognized by the Supreme Court for such violations is the Exclusionary Rule—evidence that is obtained illegally is inadmissible, or excluded, at trial.

The rule works by discouraging the unlawful actions of law enforcement by preventing them from using the evidence to support their case.

But what happens when law enforcement doesn't care about trial because they have no case against individuals to begin with? And what happens when a fine or prison sentence is not the punishment but rather being unlawfully detained for an uncertain amount of time or secretly shipped around the country?

In a world where the process and not the sentence is the punishment, the 4th and 5th Amendment rights are left with little to keep them from becoming empty promises.

Nonetheless, the district court stood up for those rights. And the government is constitutionally bound to follow the order and respect the rights of immigrants and citizens within the United States.