Federal Judge Limits Warrantless Immigration Arrests and Gives a Civics Lesson

U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled on Dec. 2 that the warrantless immigration arrests during the immigration crackdown in Washington, D.C. “probably violated federal law.” In an 88-page ruling Judge Howell has prohibited such arrests for all migrants in the city except those at risk of escaping. The judge ordered that immigration authorities document every warrantless immigration arrest in D.C. with “specific, particularized facts” establishing probable cause “that the person is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained.” The judge criticized the “systemic failure” by federal immigration authorities to comply with the law and said that Chief Border Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino had repeatedly distorted and erroneously stated the legal requirements for warrantless arrests. The agitated judge explained that Bovino had falsely asserted that officers needed the less demanding standard of “reasonable suspicion” to conduct such arrests, but Howell said that the law demands the more stringent “probable cause.”