The Trump administration on Monday asked a federal appeals court to pause a sweeping order from a California judge that required officials to stop making immigration arrests without probable cause in the southern part of the state.

The U.S. government filed an appeal of a Los Angeles federal judge’s ruling to restrict immigration arrests by ICE agents, claiming immigration policy lies in the

We always built our operations, our investigations, on case work, on knowing individuals we need to be targeted because they were criminals,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said

The judge said there was "a mountain of evidence" that federal agents had arrested people solely based on characteristics such as race, employment and accent.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from conducting indiscriminate immigration enforcement raids in Los Angeles to detain people based solely on race, ethnicity, language spoken and other factors.

Ruling applies only to the seven-county jurisdiction of the U.S. Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles and surrounding areas

Immigration raids face major legal setback as federal judge blocks DHS operations in Los Angeles, finding arrests were made without probable cause and violated constitutional rights.