Three Democrat-appointed federal appeals court judges on Monday demanded an explanation as to whether the Trump administration has an official policy that requires the daily arrests of 3,000 migrants.
The 90-minute hearing, before a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, California, concerned Justice Department attorneys' request that a stay be issued regarding a Los Angeles federal judge's earlier ruling that Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities were illegally conducted without reasonable suspicion.
U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong earlier this month issued a temporary order preventing ICE agents and all others from using "apparent race or ethnicity" to determine potential enforcement actions.
DOJ attorney Jacob Roth argued Monday that Frimpong was incorrect in her findings, and insisted the ICE patrols were perfectly legal, carefully targeted, and conducted with probable cause to make arrests, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.
"The officers are instructed to find reasonable suspicion before an arrest," Roth told the three judges before adding that Frimpong's restraining order "is fundamentally flawed on multiple levels."
Judge Ronald Gould, a Clinton appointee, said he was concerned about the "large number" of arrests, and asked Roth three separate times to explain the 3,000-person daily arrests strategy.
"I'm just trying to understand what would motivate the officers who did the roundup of aliens here to grab such a large number of people so quickly," Gould said, The Washington Times reported.
Gould's two colleagues also said they were concerned about the 3,000-per-day figure.
Roth was asked whether official policy called for the number of arrests.
"Not to my knowledge, your honor," the lawyer said. "I think it came from a newspaper article."
Gould ordered Roth to determine the origin of the daily arrest figure and file the results with the court.
Axios reported in late May that ICE goals of 3,000 arrests per day were laid out by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a "tense" May 21 meeting.
The appeal stems from a class-action lawsuit accusing the Department of Homeland Security of unconstitutionally arresting and detaining people in order to meet arbitrary arrest quotas set by the Trump administration.
Arrests by immigration authorities in Los Angeles and other sanctuary cities occurred as President Donald Trump and his administration push to fulfill promises to carry out mass deportations across the country.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.