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WASHINGTON — <\/span>A federal judge said Thursday that instructions received by immigration enforcement officers to make civil immigrant arrests without warrants<\/a> do not meet probable cause standards and should not used as guidance.<\/p>\n In continuing a preliminary injunction she issued in December, U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell in Washington, D.C., said that \u201cwhen conducting civil immigration arrests without a warrant in this District, defendants shall not rely on the probable cause standard or analytical approach set forth in the five-page memorandum\u201d from the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Among the issues, the judge wrote that the instructions failed to instruct officers to assess a person’s connections to the community before concluding that person is a flight risk and therefore needs to be taken into custody immediately.<\/p>\n The action is the latest step in a lawsuit filed by four noncitizens and the nonprofit organization CASA in Washington in 2025 challenging their arrests during immigration sweeps by the federal agency, which were part of a law-enforcement surge ordered by President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n Howell approved another request by the plaintiffs seeking more records to help explain how the policy will be implemented, but she rejected some of their arguments and said the government had adhered to her preliminary injunction order on some issues.<\/p>\n