CA9 on Reasonable Suspicion: Perez Cruz v. Barr

Perez Cruz v. Barr

"Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents implemented a preconceived plan to “target” over 200 factory workers for detention and for interrogation as to their immigration status. The plan turned on obtaining and executing a search warrant for employment records at the factory. The record before us establishes that the search warrant for documents was executed “in order to” arrest undocumented workers present at the factory. Our central question is whether the ICE agents were permitted to carry out preplanned mass detentions, interrogations, and arrests at the factory, without individualized reasonable suspicion. We hold that they were not.

... The Summers line of cases does not justify using the execution of a search warrant for documents to “target” for detention, interrogation, and arrest busloads of people who could not otherwise be detained. The detentions, we conclude, violated an ICE regulation (as well as the Fourth Amendment). In light of that regulatory violation, we grant Perez Cruz’s petition for review and remand to the BIA with instructions to dismiss his removal proceedings without prejudice."

[Hats off to Ahilan T. Arulanantham (argued), Sameer Ahmed, ACLU of Southern California, Los Angeles, California; Noemi G. Ramirez, Los Angeles, California, for Petitioner; Kristin Macleod-Ball, Melissa Crow, American Immigration Council, Washington, D.C.; Matthew E. Price, Jenner & Block LLP, Washington, D.C., for Amicus Curiae American Immigration Council!]