SCOTUS Backs ICE in LA Stops: A High-Stakes Clash Over Immigration Tactics & the Fourth Amendment

EDITORIAL

By Robert Phillips, Deputy District Attorney (Ret).

Detaining and Arresting Alleged Illegal Aliens  

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently rendered an opinion in a case that questions the current president’s (i.e., Donald Trump’s) administration’s practices and tactics used in stopping, detaining, questioning, and/or arresting (and eventually deporting) illegal aliens. (See Perdomo v. Noem (9th Cir. Aug. 1, 2025) 2025 U.S.App. LEXIS 19503.)  Falling far short of reaching any ultimate conclusions, the Court in this decision did no more than uphold the lower (district) court’s conclusion, based upon the plaintiffs’ written allegations (and before any actual evidence is heard), that they are likely to succeed in proving after an evidentiary hearing that the described detentions and arrests of the various listed plaintiffs were not supported by either a reasonable suspicion or probable cause, respectively, to believe that they were in the country illegally or otherwise in violation of the law, as required by the Fourth Amendment.   

The circumstances behind this case were all alleged to have occurred as part of what has been entitled by the federal government as “Operation At Large,” as it is currently proceeding in Los Angeles. The civil defendants are listed as U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents ....