A federal judge previously issued a preliminary injunction in response to a 2025 immigration enforcement action against a Sacramento home depot.
(CN) – Federal border control agents have failed to comply with an order requiring them to properly document when they detain people, prompting a judge on Wednesday to order their compliance.
U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston ordered in April 2025 that agents stop detaining people without reasonable suspicion that they have violated an immigration law and barred them from arresting them without a warrant without finding probable cause to be a flight risk.
However, in July 2025, agents conducted an enforcement action at a warehouse in Sacramento, California, Home. Agents used 11 essentially identical forms to support the stops and arrests, the judge wrote.
That prompted the United Farm Workers, which had sued in the case, to ask the judge to order the Department of Homeland Security to comply with its April 2025 preliminary order.
In one order unsealed on Wednesdayfocusing on the documentation requirements of her order, nominee Joe Biden wrote: “Even accepting as the true defendants the assertions that all those who were stopped and arrested engaged in an unprovoked flight by agents, such a flight – alone – is insufficient to create reasonable suspicion.”
“The narratives in (forms) fail to bridge this gap,” she added.
The judge ordered agents to write a narrative report when they stop someone, including facts that support reasonable suspicion existed. They must sign and date the reports, certifying that they are true and correct.
The underlying lawsuit and Thurston’s order stem from the push against “Operation Return to Sender,” targeting California’s Central Valley and immigrants suspected of being in the country without authorization.
The United Farm Workers had accused agents of detaining people without warrants and any meaningful investigation. The judge’s April 2025 order imposed training and documentation requirements for agents.
Then, in July 2025, agents targeted the Sacramento Home Depot, where they saw about 20 day laborers. They arrested 12 people, including an American citizen, on charges of damaging government property. Agents said the I-213 forms reflected all immigration-related prohibitions, Thurston wrote.
The plaintiffs argued that agents targeted Latinos because of their apparent ethnicity and occupation and because they were near a home depot. They called the arrests illegal, as agents lacked probable cause.
“Plaintiffs insist that the inaccurate and boilerplate descriptions the Border Patrol used on the I-213 forms fail to adequately document the articulable facts relating to the stops and arrests in Sacramento, with some documents missing altogether,” Thurston wrote.
The focus of the motion for a preliminary injunction, she added, was his allegation that agents were detaining people without reasonable suspicion. The judge noted that a government lawyer had argued that the agents lacked reasonable suspicion when they entered the parking lot that day.
And while fleeing a scene is a factor to consider, it’s only one factor, Thurston wrote.
The I-213 forms provided by the agents had broad inferences, such as noncitizens regularly congregating at certain businesses. However, Thurston wrote that she had no information that would enable her to determine whether they were reasonable inferences or speculative impressions.
“While it is not unreasonable to conclude that those congregating at the location were seeking day labor or that such work might attract the undocumented, this nevertheless fails to address what proportion of those seeking day labor in this country are (or are likely to be) non-citizens,” the judge added.
The workers’ union said agents failed to question those they arrested about their ties to the community. Also, the I-213 forms used boilerplate language indicating that individual flight risk assessments never occurred.
Considering these factors, Thurston chose to clarify the documentation portion of her preliminary injunction.
Attorneys for the United Farm Workers and Homeland Security representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.
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