By Jim Thomas | Thursday, 02 April 2026 06:28 PM EDT
A federal judge in California has ruled that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents violated a prior court order restricting warrantless immigration arrests during an enforcement operation at a Sacramento Home Depot parking lot last year.
U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston determined that agents detained individuals without the required reasonable suspicion and mandated that Border Patrol agents across California’s Eastern District document the basis of any future immigration stops.
The 63-page ruling followed a review of video footage and records from the July operation. In her decision, Thurston noted that agents relied on 11 “virtually identical” Department of Homeland Security forms and used “unsupported assumptions, hunches, and generalizations” about day laborers instead of individualized assessments.
The ruling builds upon a preliminary injunction issued by Judge Thurston in April 2025 in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups. That order identified a “pattern and practice of warrantless arrests” and prohibited stops without reasonable suspicion that a person was in the country unlawfully, as well as arrests without probable cause for flight risk.
During the Sacramento operation, agents targeted day laborers gathered at a Home Depot parking lot. Thurston stated that the actions did not meet Fourth Amendment standards, which require specific, objective justification for stops rather than broad profiles.
Under the new order, agents in California’s Eastern District must create detailed, signed records explaining the reasoning and circumstances behind each stop or arrest. The ruling applies to the district, which encompasses much of California’s Central Valley and inland regions extending to the Oregon state line.
Similar legal challenges have arisen across the country as immigration enforcement has expanded. Federal judges in Oregon, Colorado, and Washington, D.C., have also issued comparable restrictions on warrantless immigration arrests. Civil rights groups have argued that some enforcement operations rely on broad characteristics that constitute racial profiling. They have also criticized the use of administrative warrants—documents signed by agency officials rather than judges—particularly in cases involving entry into homes.
In February, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) described such warrants as a “permission slip” to bypass Fourth Amendment protections. The Department of Homeland Security has defended agents’ use of warrantless stops in certain cases involving individuals with final removal orders. At his confirmation hearing, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin stated that agents should generally obtain judicial warrants before entering private property.
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, having practiced law for more than 20 years.
