Trump administration appeals federal restraining order limiting ICE operations in LA

The Trump administration on Monday filed a request with the courts to suspend the temporary restraining order (TRO) that was issued last week against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), limiting its operations in California.

The move ruled that the agency likely violated constitutional protections through its immigration enforcement practices in Los Angeles.

It was federal District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, a Biden appointee, who issued the 53-page order, and prohibited ICE agents from conducting detention stops in the Central District of California unless they have a "reasonable suspicion" that a person is in the country illegally.

Frimpong's ruling explicitly prohibits ICE from relying solely on race or ethnicity, speaking Spanish or English with an accent, location or type of job when forming suspicions, citing the Fourth Amendment.

The Trump Administration's appeal

In its filing Monday, the Trump Administration said the lawsuit was originally filed by three aliens seeking to be released from immigration detention. Counsel for the petitioners filed an amended complaint, adding a number of new plaintiffs, both individual and organizational, the government alleged.

The Administration also claimed the court gave them only two business days to respond to hundreds of pages of discovery. "The result is a sweeping, district-wide injunction that threatens to hamper immigration enforcement by imposing a Damocles sword of contempt at every immigration stop," the appeal stated.

"The Government requests the immediate stay of this untenable order pending appeal, and an administrative stay in the meantime."

The Trump administration further argued that Frimpong ignored the recent Supreme Court ruling involving the president that rejects universal injunctions.

Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong's ruling was not nationwide, but focused on Los Angeles and the Central District of California.