CALIFORNIA – On September 8, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the Trump administration’s emergency request to lift a federal judge’s restrictions on ICE enforcement in Southern California.
This order allows immigration raids to continue while the broader legal case proceeds.
The restrictions, initially imposed by Judge Maame E. Frimpong in July, had barred stops based on race, Spanish language or limited English proficiency, occupation, or location – factors criticized as unconstitutional racial profiling.
In his concurrence, Justice Brett Kavanaugh emphasized that these factors may be considered when supported by other contextual evidence, calling the approach “common sense.”
“Importantly, reasonable suspicion means only that immigration officers may briefly stop the individual and inquire about immigration status. If the person is a U. S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter,” said Kavanaugh.
He added that only if the person is illegally in the United States may the stop lead to further immigration proceedings.
Erodes Fourth Amendment protections
In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, warned that the ruling could enable discriminatory practices that erode Fourth Amendment protections.
These protections safeguard an individual from unreasonable searches of their person, home, papers, and belongings.
“The Government, and now the concurrence, has all but declared that all Latinos, U.S. citizens or not, who work low-wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time, taken away from work, and held until they provide proof of their legal status to the agents’ satisfaction,” said Sotomayor.
She added that, rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, she must dissent.
ICE can temporarily resume enforcement actions
The ruling allows enforcement actions to resume – but only temporarily, as the underlying lawsuit, Noem v. Vasquez-Perdomo, continues in the lower courts.
