California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Friday celebrated a ruling from a federal judge that bars the Trump administration from using “unconstitutional” immigration enforcement efforts in several Golden State counties.
U.S. District Judge Maame E. Frimpong, an appointee of former President Biden, granted two temporary restraining orders preventing officials from targeting individuals for removal based on their race, language or employment and requiring the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to grant detainees access to legal counsel.
Newsom hailed the ruling in a Friday post on social media, saying “Justice prevailed today.”
“The court’s decision puts a temporary stop to federal immigration officials violating people’s rights and racial profiling,” he wrote in a statement posted to social platform X. “California stands with the law and the Constitution — and I call on the Trump Administration to do the same.”
In a separate post shared from Newsom’s press office account, the governor called out President Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, saying his immigration agenda is “one of chaos, cruelty and fear.”
“Instead of targeting the most dangerous people, federal officials have been arbitrarily detaining Americans and hardworking people, ripping families apart, and disappearing people into cruel detention to meet outrageous arrest quotas without regard to due process and constitutional rights that protect all of us from cruelty and injustice,” the X post reads. “That should stop now.”
The orders come after weeks of unrest in Los Angeles and surrounding areas over an uptick in immigration raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Mass protests erupted in the region over Trump’s actions as the White House seeks to carry out the largest deportation in history.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also praised the latest ruling in a post on X.
“L.A. has been under assault as masked men snatch people off the street and chase people through parking lots and summer camps,” she wrote Friday. “But today, the Court ruled in favor of the United States Constitution.”
Bass added, “This is a win for Los Angeles and it is a win for cities all across the nation.”
The White House said it would appeal Frimpong’s ruling.
“No federal judge has the authority to dictate immigration policy — that authority rests with Congress and the President,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement to The Associated Press.
“Enforcement operations require careful planning and execution; skills far beyond the purview (or) jurisdiction of any judge,” Jackson added. “We expect this gross overstep of judicial authority to be corrected on appeal.”
The court’s decision comes a day after 200 immigrants were arrested at two cannabis farms in the state, which resulted in one death.
Local leaders have ramped up migrant protections and increased calls to have federal immigration authorities withdrawn from the area citing anxiety and angst among families in the region. Following the Trump administration’s deployment of National Guard troops and Marines to the Los Angeles area to quell demonstrations last month, anti-ICE protests sprung up across the country.
Newsom later filed a lawsuit against the federal government over the deployment. A federal judge, however, rejected the Golden State’s request for an immediate order limiting troop’s deployment and set a hearing for a later date. Almost a week later, a federal appeals court ruled the president could retain control of the state’s National Guard for the time being.
“The Judges obviously realized that Gavin Newscum is incompetent and ill prepared, but this is much bigger than Gavin, because all over the United States, if our Cities, and our people, need protection, we are the ones to give it to them should State and Local Police be unable, for whatever reason, to get the job done,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time.
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