Judge Rules CBP Violated Court Order in Home Depot Raid

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston ruled Wednesday that Customs and Border Protection agents violated her standing court order when they swarmed the parking lot of a south Sacramento Home Depot on July 17, 2025, detaining day laborers in an operation the judge found lacked the legal basis her injunction required.

The ruling confirmed what the ACLU and United Farm Workers had argued before the court since September 2025: that the Sacramento operation breached Thurston's April 2025 injunction barring agents in the Eastern District of California from making warrantless arrests without first establishing probable cause that a person posed a flight risk. "Congress requires Agents to consider whether, when making warrantless arrests, the noncitizen poses a flight risk or a danger to community if released," Thurston wrote in the decision. "Rather than abide by Congress' mandate, Agents arrested everyone who could not establish citizenship."

Central to her finding was the paperwork. Agents submitted 11 "virtually identical" forms to justify the detentions and arrests, which plaintiffs argued reflected fabricated, copy-pasted boilerplate rather than individualized assessments. After reviewing both the documentation and recorded footage of the operation, Thurston concluded agents had "again detained people without reasonable suspicion for doing so."

The Sacramento raid unfolded in the immediate wake of a separate federal court order blocking Border Patrol's "roving patrols" in the Los Angeles area. El Centro Sector Chief Greg Bovino shifted operations north to Sacramento days after that LA ruling. According to court documents, dozens of armed and masked agents from Border Patrol, ICE, and other federal agencies descended on the south Sacramento Home Depot in unmarked Chevy trucks, ordering workers in the parking lot not to move while demanding proof of citizenship. Witnesses described agents dressed "like soldiers" who did not identify themselves. Twelve people were arrested, including at least one U.S. citizen who was chased and detained; Border Patrol declined to release that arrest report, telling the ACLU it was unrelated to an immigration violation.

Day laborers seeking work from contractors are a fixture in Home Depot parking lots nationwide, and the south Sacramento location was no different. That informal hiring dynamic has made store lots recurring flashpoints as interior immigration enforcement has intensified.

The case originated from "Operation Return to Sender," a January 2025 Border Patrol sweep targeting a Home Depot and orchards in Kern County's Central Valley. Thurston issued her original injunction that April after finding that agents had "engaged in conduct that violated well-established constitutional rights." Wednesday's ruling marks the second time the court has found the agency out of compliance, raising the prospect of more formal enforcement action if the pattern continues.