Judge finds ICE arrests in DC failed to meet probable cause standards

WASHINGTON (CN) — A federal judge ruled on Thursday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers failed to comply with an order requiring they obtain a warrant and assess probable cause of a flight risk before making arrests in the nation's capital.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell previously found ICE agents were summarily rounding immigrants off the streets of Washington without any assessments regarding their "likelihood of escape," including their immigration status or ties to the community, resulting in several unlawful arrests.

In a 45-page opinion, Howell sided with the American Civil Liberties Union and enhanced her December preliminary injunction by ordering ICE to stop relying on a Jan. 28 memo issued by ICE leader Todd Lyons lowering the standard for probable cause.

Under the memo, an individual driving a car or appearing nervous amounted to an escape risk, which the ACLU argued allowed ICE to arrest "virtually anyone detained through a traffic stop or on the street."

"The Lyons memo's flawed definition of escape risk and failure to mention community ties as a mitigating factor leaves no alternative but to prohibit reliance on the memorandum in its entirety," the Barack Obama appointee wrote.

In December 2025, Howell ruled while federal agents may have the authority to make warrantless immigration arrests, the way that authority has been used on the immigrant community in Washington was likely unlawful.

She further certified a class including all individuals who, since President Donald Trump's August 2025 "crime emergency," have been or will be arrested without either a warrant or an individualized assessment of probable cause.

On Feb. 19, the American Civil Liberties Union informed the court the government was actively ignoring her order and was continuing to conduct warrantless immigration arrests without the probable cause determinations, and asked Howell to enforce the injunction.

At a March 11 hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Bardo maintained ICE agents were considering escape risk along with the "totality of the circumstances" and trying to comply with Howell's order.

He said the "scene of the encounter" language in the Lyons memo applied to individuals whom agents could not guarantee would remain until a warrant could be obtained, or who did not have an identifiable "next likely location," such as their home or place of business.

In her opinion, Howell noted she already found that an immigrant's presence in a vehicle was not sufficient to decide an individual is an escape risk.

She further slammed the Justice Department for trying to soften the Lyons memo buy arguing the ACLU had merely misconstrued it, as ICE agents in the field seemed to have the same understanding as the plaintiffs.

Howell wrote that every Form I-213, which describes an immigration agent's encounter with an arrested individual, simply states an individual was arrested at large or pulled over in a vehicle. In many cases, that justification was made without any reference to whether the individual could be found later at their home or work, Howell said.

"In short, the Lyons memo does not properly instruct law enforcement officers to comply with the preliminary injunction order: Immigration officers must consider not only an individual's likelihood of remaining at the scene of the encounter, but also, per the definition the Lyons memo itself proffers as legally supportable and agreed upon by plaintiffs for purposed of this motion, the individual's likelihood of being found at another clearly identifiable location," Howell wrote.

The fact that so few arrest forms included any assessment of an immigrant's ties to their community also violated the clear terms of her injunction, Howell said.

Shana Khader, deputy legal director for We Are CASA, one of the plaintiffs in the case, welcomed Howell's ruling in an emailed statement.

"These rampant, unlawful warrantless arrests have terrorized our communities, creating fear and instability for families across D.C.," Khader said. "Parents are afraid to go to work, children worry their loved ones may not come home and entire communities are forced to live with uncertainty. The government's flagrant violation of the law has real human consequences, and the court today has sent a powerful message that the government cannot sidestep the law."