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In January, Border Patrol agents conducted sweeps<\/a> through immigrant communities in California\u2019s Central Valley, arresting nearly 80 individuals the agency said were unlawfully present in the United States.<\/p>\n Officials said the operation, named \u201cReturn to Sender,\u201d was intended to target undocumented immigrants with serious criminal backgrounds. But lawyers for those arrested argued that the agents had simply rounded up people who appeared to be day laborers and farm workers, regardless of their actual immigration status, without having a legally sound reason to suspect they were in the country illegally.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, a federal judge in California issued<\/a> a preliminary injunction barring Border Patrol agents from stopping individuals without having a reasonable suspicion of illegal presence, as required by the Fourth Amendment.<\/p>\n The judge also blocked agents from making warrantless arrests unless they have probable cause to believe the person is likely to flee before a warrant can be obtained.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Trump administration has adopted increasingly aggressive tactics in pursuit of its goal of mass deportations, but has faced pushback from the judiciary. The California ruling marks the latest attempt by courts to rein in enforcement actions that appear to conflict with long-established constitutional and legal protections.<\/p>\n Judge Jennifer L. Thurston of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California noted in her ruling that the government did not \u201cdispute or rebut\u201d the \u201csignificant anecdotal evidence\u201d from the plaintiffs regarding Border Patrol\u2019s stop-and-arrest practices.<\/p>\n The preliminary injunction, which applies to the federal district where the sweeps occurred, will remain in place as the case proceeds. A scheduling conference is planned for early June.<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Representatives for the plaintiffs praised the decision. \u201cYou cannot stop people based on how they look,\u201d said Elizabeth Strater, a national vice president of United Farm Workers, a labor union. \u201cThis ruling upholds the basic standards of law in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Border Patrol operation, carried out in Kern County, which includes Bakersfield, Calif., targeted areas heavily reliant on immigrant labor for agriculture. Agents monitored places including a Home Depot and gas stations frequented by undocumented people.<\/p>\n Gregory K. Bovino, a Border Patrol chief in Southern California, described the operation at the time as an \u201coverwhelming success.\u201d He said in a series of social media posts that it had resulted in the arrests of 78 people who were in the country illegally, including a handful with \u201cserious criminal histories.\u201d<\/p>\n Advocates for farmworkers, however, said that many of those detained had no criminal records and that the raids had terrorized immigrant communities.<\/p>\n