California Attorney General Co-Leads Multistate Brief Urging Court to Keep Limits on Warrantless Immigration Arrests in Colorado
The California Attorney General's Office (Office of the Attorney General) announced in Oakland on October 20 that Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed an amicus brief in support of litigation challenging federal immigration arrest practices. Bonta, co-leading a multistate coalition with Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit to uphold a lower court order prohibiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from conducting civil immigration arrests without a warrant unless the officer has probable cause that the individual is both violating immigration law and is a flight risk.
Bonta and Weiser lead the attorneys general of Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai'i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and the District of Columbia, a coalition of 22 states and jurisdictions in total.
In the brief, the coalition argues that Congress, through the Immigration and Nationality Act and federal regulations, has placed clear limits on immigration agents' authority to make warrantless arrests, requiring individualized probable cause of both removability and a likelihood of escape. ICE has repeatedly ignored these limits, the coalition says, resulting in unlawful arrests, improper detentions and chaotic enforcement practices across the country. The brief also highlights the harms of these practices to public safety, education, health and the economy of the states' residents: families are destabilized, workplaces disrupted, schools strained, local economies unsettled, and essential state and local services including healthcare, education and public safety are hindered.
"The Trump Administration has sought to instill fear in immigrant communities through indiscriminate, sweeping, and often baseless immigration arrests," Bonta said in the statement. "This violates the law — and basic human decency. In California, we've seen firsthand the devastation wrought by the Trump Administration's destructive mass deportation agenda. We will always stand up for the rights of our immigrant communities and communities across the country."
The Attorney General's Office said California has experienced the harms of aggressive immigration enforcement firsthand, including declines in school attendance, farm operations, public health, economic security, and public trust between communities and state and local law enforcement. Border Patrol's January 2025 "Operation Return to Sender" raid in Kern County resulted in the arrest of 78 people, and in June 2025 the Department of Homeland Security began "Operation at Large" in Los Angeles. Bonta previously filed amicus briefs concerning both operations, including at the Ninth Circuit; the Tenth Circuit brief continues his support for challenges to the Department of Homeland Security's enforcement practices.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 加州总检察长 Rob Bonta 官方肖像。照片：Douglas Despres／加州总检察长办公室，公共领域，经维基共享资源／Official portrait of California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Photo: Douglas Despres, California Attorney General's Office, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
