PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — U.S. immigration agents in Oregon must stop arresting people without warrants unless there's a likelihood of escape, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai issued a preliminary injunction in a proposed class-action lawsuit targeting the Department of Homeland Security's practice of arresting immigrants they happen to come across while conducting ramped-up enforcement operations — which critics have described as “arrest first, justify later.”
The department, which is named as a defendant in the suit, did not immediately comment in response to a request from The Associated Press.
Similar actions, including immigration agents entering private property without a warrant issued by a court, have drawn concern from civil rights groups across the country amid President Donald Trump's mass deportation efforts.
Courts in Colorado and Washington, D.C., have issued rulings like Kasubhai’s, and the government has appealed them.
In a memo last week, Todd Lyons, the acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, emphasized that agents should not make an arrest without an administrative arrest warrant issued by a supervisor unless they develop probable cause to believe that the person is in the U.S. illegally and likely to escape from the scene before a warrant can be obtained.
But the judge heard evidence that agents in Oregon have arrested people in immigration sweeps without such warrants or determining escape was likely.
The daylong hearing included testimony from one plaintiff, Victor Cruz Gamez, a 56-year-old grandfather who has been in the U.S. since 1999. He told the court he was arrested and held in an immigration detention facility for three weeks even though he has a valid work permit and a pending visa application.
Cruz Gamez testified that he was driving home from work in October when he was pulled over by immigration agents. Despite showing his driver's license and work permit, he was detained and taken to the ICE building in Portland before being sent to an immigration detention center in Tacoma, Washington. After three weeks there, he was set to be deported until a lawyer secured his release, he said.
He teared up as he recounted how the arrest impacted his family, especially his wife. Once he was home they did not open the door for three weeks out of fear and one of his grandchildren did not want to go to school, he said through a Spanish interpreter.
Afterward a lawyer for the federal government told Cruz Gamez he was sorry about what he went through and the effect it had on them.
Kasubhai said the actions of agents in Oregon — including drawing guns on people while detaining them for civil immigration violations — have been “violent and brutal,” and he was concerned about the administration denying due process to those swept up in immigration raids.
“Due process calls for those who have great power to exercise great restraint,” he said. “That is the bedrock of a democratic republic founded on this great constitution. I think we’re losing that.”
The lawsuit was brought by the nonprofit law firm Innovation Law Lab, whose executive director, Stephen Manning, said he was confident the case will be a “catalyst for change here in Oregon.”
“That is fundamentally what this case is about: asking the government to follow the law,” he said during the hearing.
The preliminary injunction will remain in effect while the lawsuit proceeds.
Associated Press writer Gene Johnson in Seattle contributed.
FILE - Law enforcement officers look out from a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility Oct. 21, 2025, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
FILE - Jack Dickinson, dressed in a chicken costume, looks to other protesters outside a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland, Ore., Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane,File)
Ryan Preece outlasted sleet, a wet track and a record number of cautions to win The Clash in near-freezing temperatures at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
The Wednesday night exhibition was the first victory at the top Cup Series level for Preece, who drives a Ford for RFK Racing. The event had originally been scheduled for Sunday but was twice postponed because of snow that blanketed the state.
Preece joins Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin as drivers who won The Clash before ever winning a points-paying race. He will now take momentum into Daytona International Speedway for next week's season-opening Daytona 500.
Weather dramatically disrupted the 200-lap event and NASCAR called a break just after the halfway point because it began sleeting over the stadium. NASCAR ordered cars to the pits to put on wet-weather Goodyear tires, and the cars returned to the track with the designated tires, but many drivers complained of visibility issues between the sleet and the glare of the lights.
The cars briefly returned to the pits, the sleet stopped, and they went back to a wet track. But as soon as the race went green, Hamlin slid into pole-sitter Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch was also collected.
From there, it was spin after spin as the race dragged on so long that cars began running out of fuel and past Fox's allotted broadcast window, forcing the remaining 35 laps to be aired on cable. NASCAR allowed the cars to go back to the pits for fuel at the same time coverage left Fox.
The race ranked as one of the coldest in NASCAR history with temperatures hovering around freezing — especially when it began sleeting.
Preece, who has clawed his way through the ranks of NASCAR from a background racing modifieds in the Northeast, was in tears as he celebrated. He's been on NASCAR's national scene since 2013 but is only starting his seventh full season of competition at the Cup level.
“Two years ago I didn't think I had a job — I thought I was going back to Connecticut,” Preece said. “I'm super, super, super emotional.”
Preece ran only two races in 2022, spent the next two seasons with Stewart-Haas Racing, but was out of a seat when that team folded after the 2024 season.
He was picked up by RFK Racing, the team co-owned by fellow driver Brad Keselowski, ahead of 2025 and was arguably the top performer for the organization.
In 223 starts since 2015, Preece has 30 top-10 finishes.
“It's been a (expletive) long road, and it's The Clash, but man, it's just been years and years of grinding,” said Preece, who thanked Keselowski.
“This is as much as a mental game as it as anything and I felt pretty beat up,” Preece said. “We had a couple of restarts go our way and then before you know it you're in the first two rows and then the claws come out.”
William Byron finished second and was followed by Ryan Blaney and Daniel Suarez in his debut race for Spire Motorsports. Hamlin was fifth.
Bowman Gray hosted The Clash for the second consecutive year. It was held at Daytona International Speedway for 43 years from its inception in 1979 through 2021, then moved for three seasons to a temporary track inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Larson, the reigning Cup Series champion, started from the pole alongside Hendrick Motorsports teammate Byron, the two-time defending Daytona 500 winner.
Hamlin, who had an emotionally traumatic roller coaster of an offseason, started sixth in his first time in a car since he dramatically lost the Cup title in November. Hamlin revealed before the race that he reinjured a torn labrum that was surgically repaired ahead of the 2025 season when he slipped in the debris from the December house fire that killed his father and critically injured his mother.
He said he'd hold off on repairing it until the end of this upcoming season.
“I don’t think that it ever healed properly,” Hamlin said. “Took a little fall at my mom’s house, going through all the rubble and stuff, and just didn’t feel right. Got it rescanned and re-tore it again.”
Josh Berry and Austin Cindric claimed the final two spots in The Clash by finishing 1-2 in the last chance qualifying heat.
Berry ran away with the win in the heat race in the No. 21 for Wood Brothers Racing, a team affiliated with Team Penske. Cindric had a much tougher task as he raced side-by-side for over 15 laps with Corey Lajoie for the second transfer position.
Lajoie was the injury replacement driver for Keselowski, co-owner of RFK Racing, who is healing from a broken leg suffered in a fall in December. He held his own against fellow Ford driver Cindric, in a Penske entry, as the two jostled back-and-forth for second.
As the drivers came to the checkered flag, AJ Allmendinger gave Cindric a shove in the hopes of moving both Cindric and Lajoie out of his way so that Allmendinger could take the final spot. The move instead pushed Cindric firmly ahead of Lajoie for the final spot in the 200-lap Clash at the historic short track.
Among those who missed making the field for The Clash were Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Todd Gilliland, who both spent a day this week shoveling snow out of the grandstands at Bowman Gray to help NASCAR prepare the facility.
Teams report to Daytona International Speedway next week for the Daytona 500 on Feb. 15. Qualifying for the pole is next Wednesday and the rest of the field will be set via a pair of Thursday races.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Kyle Busch (8) and Ty Gibbs (54) avoid Kyle Larson (5) spinning out during NASCAR's The Clash preseason auto race, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Winston-Salem, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
Ryan Preece celebrates in Victory Lane after winning NASCAR's The Clash preseason auto race, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Winston-Salem, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
Joey Logano sits on pit road in a weather delay during NASCAR's The Clash preseason auto race, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Winston-Salem, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
Denny Hamlin (11) passes Chris Buescher (17) in Turn 1 during NASCAR's The Clash preseason auto race at Bowman Gray Stadium, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Winston-Salem, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
Kyle Larson (5) leads a pack of cars into Turn 2 during NASCAR's The Clash preseason auto race at Bowman Gray Stadium, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Winston-Salem, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
Kyle Larson looks on prior to NASCAR's The Clash preseason auto race at Bowman Gray Stadium, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Winston-Salem, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
