A federal judge has held the US Department of Homeland Security in contempt of court, ruling that the agency deliberately slow-walked an order to hand over cellphone records from immigration agents involved in a sweeping enforcement operation across Los Angeles last year, according to reports.
US District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, sitting in the Central District of California, issued the contempt finding in a sealed order last week before unsealing it on Tuesday. The Trump administration confirmed it had already paid a $3,500 fine covering a week’s delay in complying with the judge’s order.
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Frimpong had reportedly ordered the federal government in January to expedite the digital imaging of personal and government-issued cellphones belonging to more than 800 agents who took part in the operation. Attorneys for the Justice Department admitted in court in June that the records had still not been turned over, telling the judge devices were being processed at a rate of just three phones every two weeks, a pace plaintiffs noted would take nearly four years to complete.
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The dispute forms part of a broader lawsuit brought by attorneys representing immigrants caught up in Operation At Large, the name given to the administration’s Los Angeles immigration crackdown carried out in 2025. Lawyers for the plaintiffs argue the phone records may contain evidence of a pattern of racial profiling by federal agents during the raids.
Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union reportedly wrote in May that the department had “simply proceeded to thwart” the court’s order by delaying the imaging of government devices and openly defying the order regarding personal phones.
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Frimpong, a Biden appointee, imposed a fine of $500 a day on the federal government until it complies fully with the order, alongside a requirement to reimburse the plaintiffs’ attorneys for legal costs incurred pursuing compliance. In her written ruling, she stated plainly, “This court uses that power now and finds the government in contempt,” adding that Congress had given the court authority to fine any party that fails to comply with a clear court order.
The Justice Department signalled it would continue contesting the ruling rather than accept it outright. A department spokesperson told the Washington Times the government intended to “prevail” in the dispute, while Frimpong noted separately that agents had failed to properly search for the material in the first place.
With daily fines continuing to accrue until the records are certified as handed over, the case is expected to remain a significant flashpoint in the wider legal fight over how DHS agents conducted last year’s Los Angeles immigration operation.
