Judge Jennifer L. Thurston’s injunction did more than rein in Border Patrol;
it ignited a firestorm over judicial ethics.
Her order bars warrantless arrests of suspected
undocumented immigrants across parts of California,
including Kern County, where her husband, Marc A. Thurston,
brokers multifamily housing heavily occupied by immigrant tenants.
His now‑deleted Instagram videos, highlighted by Laura Loomer,
warned that Trump‑era deportations would
devastate local rentals and his own business,
directly tying immigration enforcement to his bottom line.
Those public statements, combined with the financial stakes,
fuel arguments that Judge Thurston should have stepped aside under 28 U.S.C. § 455,
which demands recusal when a spouse’s financial interests could be
affected or when impartiality might reasonably be questioned.
Supporters frame her ruling as a constitutional safeguard after “Operation Return to Sender.”
Critics see something darker: a federal judge whose
household prosperity appears intertwined with the very policies she just constrained.
