A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in an ACLU lawsuit challenging the federal immigration agents’ practice of warrantless arrests in Colorado.

The judge also granted provisional class certification that extends the injunction statewide.

“The court has confirmed what has been enshrined in federal law for decades: ICE cannot terrify our communities with their haphazard warrantless arrests,” Tim Macdonald, ACLU of Colorado legal director, said in a statement. 

“A federal court has now declared that ICE must immediately stop these aggressive and unlawful tactics.” 

ICE said its mission is to “preserve national security and public safety” and has made 26,000 arrests nationwide in fiscal year 2025, according to its website.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said ICE officials are not making “indiscriminate” stops.

“This activist ruling is a brazen effort to hamstring the Trump administration from fulfilling the President’s mandate to deport the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” McLaughlin said in an email to The Denver Gazette.

“Allegations that DHS law enforcement engages in ‘racial profiling’ are disgusting, reckless, and categorically false. What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S. — not their skin color, race, or ethnicity.”

McLaughlin also said ICE had been “vindicated” on this question in other cases.

It was unclear what case she was referring to.

The Supreme Court did recently issue a temporary administrative stay in Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem, pausing a lower court order that barred officers from using race or language as factors in immigration stops. But the Court has not yet ruled on the merits of those claims or on ICE’s warrantless arrest authority.

Last month, the ACLU of Colorado sued the Trump administration, alleging that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials had carried out unlawful, warrantless arrests as part of a broad effort to detain immigrants living in the United States without legal status.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of a lawful permanent resident, a “Dreamer” brought to the country as a child, an asylum seeker, all of whom have lived in the country for more than a decade. “Dreamer” is a colloquial term for an immigrant brought illegally to the U.S. as a child who is eligible for protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Since assuming office in January, President Donald Trump has embarked on a mass deportation effort that has drawn both criticism and lawsuits.

Federal data suggest that arrests have more than doubled since the spring, according to TRAC Immigration at Syracuse University.

To make a dent in the 14 million unauthorized immigrants estimated to be living in the U.S. — according to the Pew Research Center — House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s mass deportation effort, instructed ICE in June to make 3,000 arrests a day.

That’s up from the 650 arrests a day in the first five months of Trump’s second term.

As previously reported by The Denver Gazette, renters at an apartment complex raided by agents from three federal agencies breached doors in the early morning on Feb. 5 and did not provide the warrants used to justify the operation.

Everyone in apartment 301A at Cedar Run disputed that federal agents provided them a judicial warrant.

“They didn’t show nothing,” Fernando Martinez said at the time. “They just let themselves in.”

Located in southeast Denver, Cedar Run Apartments is a 384-unit complex built in 1970 that offers one- and two-bedroom apartments near Cherry Creek.

Having sought copies of those warrants, The Denver Gazette has a pending appeal with the U.S. Department of Justice.

It is unclear whether ICE will appeal the ruling.

Officials could not be immediately reached Tuesday.

It is also unknown how ICE will adjust its enforcement operations in Colorado in light of the order’s limits on warrantless arrests.

Editor’s note: This is a developing story.