(Image Credit: IMAGN) FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers carried out a series of enforcement operations in Los Angeles in late-February, 2025.
El Centro, California – Three Guatemalan day laborers arrested outside a Home Depot in Pomona, California, will no longer face expedited deportation after a federal judge temporarily halted the Trump administration’s attempt to rapidly remove them from the country without court hearings. The case has drawn national attention, raising alarm over the government’s expanded use of a fast-track deportation policy once reserved for immigrants caught near the border.
The men — Jesus Domingo Ros, Yoni Jacinto Garcia, and Edwin Juarez-Cobon — were detained by Border Patrol agents on April 22, nearly 200 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. Advocates say the agents lacked warrants and probable cause, violating the men’s Fourth Amendment rights. In response to a habeas corpus petition filed by attorneys with the USC Gould School of Law, Judge Dana Sabraw issued a temporary restraining order barring their removal from the Southern District of California.
“There’s no dispute that the Fourth Amendment applies to people within the interior of the United States, is there?” Sabraw asked during Friday’s hearing, pushing back on the federal government’s claim that the stops were consensual and the court had no jurisdiction.
By Monday, the federal government had backed off. Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Dimbleby told the court that immigration authorities would no longer pursue expedited removal for the men and that they would instead go before an immigration judge. The White House did not explain, but attorneys suspect the government did not want to produce arresting agents to testify under oath.
“This is a huge victory for due process,” said Niels Frenzen, lead attorney in the case. “The government clearly overstepped its authority.”
Under the Trump administration’s January 2020 policy shift, expedited removal was expanded to the entire country and to include noncitizens who had lived in the U.S. for up to two years. Previously, such removals were limited to those detained within 100 miles of the border who had arrived within 14 days. The change has raised fears of wrongful deportations, including of U.S. citizens and legal residents.
Domingo Ros, 38, who fled violence in Guatemala and has lived in Pomona for nearly three years, described being tackled and injured by agents. He said he was held for days in freezing cells and interrogated about other people. “Just with everything you’re seeing on the news right now, I really panicked,” he told CalMatters.
Border Patrol claims it was targeting a single individual with an arrest warrant but detained at least nine others. Advocates say that authorities have arrested over 20 people. ICE said some had prior charges, but Ros and the others facing fast-track removal have no criminal records.
The men remain in custody but will now have a chance to contest their deportation in court. Advocates say the case is part of a larger trend toward eroding immigrants’ constitutional protections. “Looking for work is not a crime,” said Alexis Teodoro of the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center. “These men deserve a fair hearing.”
