Appeals court keeps protections against DHS’s armed home visits in place

On Oct. 30, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied the government’s emergency motion to pause the preliminary injunction issued last week. 

The injunction remains in effect through Election Day, which means DHS cannot send agents after people it knows or suspects are U.S. citizens, or target homes where it knows or suspects a citizen lives, in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin.

In the ruling, the court recognized — as district courts have now ruled repeatedly — that DHS built its target lists from records known to be inaccurate that mislabeled U.S. citizens as noncitizens. It also recognized that Plaintiffs’ fear of DHS’s efforts to insert itself into the election process “is reasonably exacerbated by two years of highly visible aggressive conduct by federal agents in immigration enforcement operations under this administration.”

“Last week, the district court held that DHS’s frantic, last-minute voter investigations are unlawful voter intimidation,” said Beau Tremitiere, Counsel at Protect Democracy. “Today, the government’s attempt to restart that campaign failed. This was one more desperate attempt by the Trump administration to interfere in the midterm elections, and the courts have again said no. Voting is a right that belongs to every citizen, born here or naturalized. We encourage all eligible Americans to continue showing up and making their voices heard.”

“Today’s decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sends a clear message that there’s no space for voter intimidation in our elections,” said Benjamin R. Farley, Supervisory Counsel for Democracy Defense at the National Immigration Law Center. The court rightly rejected the government’s efforts to cloak its program of propagandized intimidation in ‘emergency’ and ‘law enforcement.’ Elections belong to the people, not the president — and we applaud the court for affirming that fundamental principle.”

“This ruling reinforces that all people should stand up to these desperate efforts by the Trump administration to interfere in the election,” said Puneet Maharaj, Executive of National Nurses United (NNU) and California Nurses Association (CNA).