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News · United StatesA judge bars immigration agents from stopping people for looking Latino in Southern California
Federal Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong requires specific suspicion before stopping anyone and says there is a mountain of evidence of discrimination against Latinos. The Trump administration has already appealed.
Translated from the original Spanish article. Read in Spanish
News published on October 30, 2026. The situation may have changed since then.
A federal judge in California has barred immigration agents from stopping people because of how they look. In other words: they cannot stop someone just for looking Latino or looking like a worker.
The decision became public on Thursday, October 29, 2026, although the judge signed it the week before.
What the order says
Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong issued a preliminary injunction. Agents now need reasonable, specific suspicion about each person before detaining them.
It is not enough for someone to resemble the person they are looking for. Stops at the border and at checkpoints are not covered by the order.
The measure applies in seven counties: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.
The judge spoke of a mountain of evidence that agents discriminated against Latinos.
The evidence
The plaintiffs, including the ACLU of Southern California, presented body camera footage and text messages with slurs against Latinos.
There were also accounts from Latino U.S. citizens who were detained even though they said they were citizens. One, a car wash worker, was not allowed to go get his passport. And an ICE email from May 2025 called for mass arrests of people who were not the targets.
The court battle
This is not the first time. In July 2025 the same judge halted these stops, but the Supreme Court suspended that order in September 2025, without explaining why.
This time, the judge said the case brings new evidence and different arguments.
The Trump administration has already appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and asked for the order to be suspended. The Department of Homeland Security denies any racial profiling.
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Sources (in Spanish)
- Orden de la jueza, condados, pruebas, historia del caso y apelación: Los Angeles Times vía Yahoo News (29 de octubre de 2026).
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