US judge says border officials violated her previous order on warrantless arrests

US District Judge Jennifer Thurston had issued an order in April last year barring federal agents from warrantless arrests

Representational Photo: A Department of Homeland Security officer directs passengers as they wait in long TSA lines amid a funding standoff that has forced 50,000 airport security officers to go without pay, causing delays at airports, at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, US, Mar 25, 2026. REUTERS

A federal judge in California said on Wednesday that US Customs and Border Protection officials had violated a previous order from her on warrantless arrests when they carried out an immigration sweep in a Home Depot parking lot in Sacramento.

US District Judge Jennifer Thurston, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden, had issued an order in April last year barring federal agents from warrantless arrests without finding probable cause of a flight risk.

The judge said that border agents appeared to be in violation of her order when they carried out an immigration enforcement action in a Home Depot parking lot in Sacramento in July 2025, and ordered agents throughout the Eastern District of California to properly document reasons to make future stops.

President Donald Trump's administration has pursued an aggressive and hardline immigration crackdown which has been widely condemned by human rights groups as being in violation of due process and free speech rights. Rights groups also say the crackdown has created an unsafe environment for ethnic minorities in the US and raised fears of racial profiling.

Trump has cast his actions as being aimed at reducing illegal immigration and improving domestic security.

"Congress requires Agents to consider whether, when making warrantless arrests, the noncitizen poses a flight risk or a danger to community if released. Rather than abide by Congress' mandate, Agents arrested everyone who could not establish citizenship," Thurston said in court records released on Wednesday.

The judge said that in the July 2025 immigration enforcement action in the parking lot of the Home Depot in Sacramento, agents used 11 "virtually identical" forms to support detentions and arrests.

"Having carefully examined the entire record, including the recorded footage of the Sacramento action, the Court finds that Defendants have again detained people without reasonable suspicion for doing so," the judge said.