Ruling restricts immigration enforcement tactics

SAN DIEGO — A federal judge has prohibited U.S. immigration authorities from relying on databases deemed faulty to ask law enforcement agencies to hold people in custody, a setback for the Trump administration that threatens to hamper how it carries out arrests.

The ruling applies only to the Central District of California, where state law already sharply limits the extent to which state and local law enforcement agencies can honor requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But the district encompasses ICE’s Pacific Enforcement Response Center in Laguna Niguel (Orange County), which makes requests aroundtheclock to law enforcement agencies in 42 states and two U.S. territories.

U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte Jr. in Los Angeles said the databases are unreliable for people who are not already deported or in removal proceedings before an immigration judge. The best way to confirm legal status is through an interview, immigration records or other documents, he wrote.

During Barack Obama’s presidency, immigration authorities dramatically increased requests to prisons and jails to hold people an additional 48 hours if they are suspected of being in the country illegally. The practice, which has continued under President Trump, often gives immigration authorities time to arrest people before they are released.

The White House issued a statement that said an unnamed judge in California issued “a legally groundless and sweeping injunction that — if not immediately lifted — will guarantee the release of innumerable criminal illegal aliens into our communities putting citizens at dire risk.”

ICE said it is reviewing the decision issued last week to determine its impact and decide on any next steps. From May 2015 to February 2016, 771, or 6%, of 12,797 requests that ICE issued were either for U.S. citizens or people who were not subject to deportation, according to records introduced at trial last yea .

The judge ruled in September that the databases ICE uses “often contain incomplete data, significant errors, or were not designed to provide information that would be used to determine a person’s removability.”

Elliot Spagat is an Associated Press writer.