Trump admin fights California ban on considering Spanish-speaking and other factors in ICE raids

CALIFORNIA – The U.S. Solicitor General, representing Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem and other federal officials, asked the Supreme Court, August 7, to block an order limiting immigration enforcement in California’s Central District.

The lower court’s injunction or ban prohibits federal agents from using four specific factors as the sole basis for suspecting someone is in the country illegally:

race or ethnicity;
speaking Spanish or accented English;
presence at known spots for undocumented immigrants;
and certain types of employment.

The Trump administration challenged the district-court injunction in California’s Central District, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura counties.

They argue the ban hinders immigration enforcement by threatening agents with contempt for stops of suspected illegal aliens.

“Not only is the Central District the Nation’s most populous district overall; at best estimate, it harbors some 2 million illegal aliens out of its total population of nearly 20 million people, making it by far the largest destination for illegal aliens,” according to court documents.

For this reason, they say the Los Angeles area is a top enforcement priority.

Misapplies Fourth Amendment law

In a July 11, 2025 order, Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong found that federal immigration enforcement operations in California violated the Fourth Amendment by conducting stops without reasonable cause.

The Trump administration contends the injunction misapplies Fourth Amendment law, which requires considering the totality of the circumstances.

They note that illegal presence is common in the Central District – about 1 in 10 people. Many places hire illegal workers every day. Some jobs attract them because they don’t require paperwork. Most come from Mexico or Central America, and many only speak Spanish.

The court barred agents from using those four factors as reasonable suspicion for anyone in the Central District.

“Now, ICE agents, under threat of contempt, cannot detain anyone in the District solely based on those factors—not even after encountering someone who speaks only Spanish and works as a day laborer at a worksite that has been cited 30 times for hiring illegal aliens as day laborers,” they argue.

They say the injunction improperly limits reasonable suspicion standards and unlawfully imposes a sweeping, district-wide ban affecting 20 million residents.

Agent cannot confidently enforce law

The Justice Department warns the ruling creates a “contempt trap” for immigration agents and undermines national enforcement policies.

“No agent can confidently enforce the law and engage in routine stops when the district court may later refuse to credit that the stop reflected additional, permissible factors and instead treat virtually any stop as contemptuous misconduct,” they argue.

Both the district court and the Ninth Circuit refused to pause the ban, prompting an emergency appeal.

They are asking the Supreme Court to immediately pause the ban until the appeal is decided. A response to the application is due August 12, 2025.