The Supreme Court has ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents can detain individuals without reasonable suspicion in certain cases, allowing race, language, location, and job type to be considered in immigration stops.
In a 6-3 ruling on Monday (September 8), the Supreme Court lifted a lower court order that blocked ICE agents in Los Angeles from targeting individuals based on four factors, including ethnicity, language or accent, location, and employment type, per HuffPost. The lower court ruling was issued by U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, who said stops based on these factors violated the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.
However, Justice Brett Kavanaugh cited the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows agents to interrogate or briefly detain a person “believed to be an alien.” Kavanaugh argued Monday that in areas with a high number of undocumented immigrants, like Los Angeles, factors such as working in day labor, landscaping, or agriculture, speaking limited English, or being of Central American or Mexican descent could be used to justify brief stops.
“To be clear, apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion,” Kavanaugh wrote. “However, it can be a ‘relevant factor’ when considered along with other salient factors.”
Kavanaugh also downplayed the Fourth Amendment concerns, saying ICE questioning of individuals would be “typically brief” and they would be “promptly” released upon proving their legal status.
The Supreme Court justice acknowledged that many undocumented immigrants come to the U.S. “to escape poverty and the lack of freedom,” but concluded, “the fact remains… they are acting illegally by remaining in the United States.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, along with Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, issued a forceful dissent against the ruling that effectively legitimizes racial profiling by ICE.
“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job,” Sotomayor wrote. “Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”
Sotomayor also accused the federal government of effectively declaring “that all Latinos, U.S. citizens or not, who work low wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time.”
The case stemmed from a Trump administration policy directing DHS to ramp up ICE operations, which has reportedly led to the detainment of both immigrants and U.S. citizens in Los Angeles. With the stay on Frimpong’s order lifted, ICE agents in Los Angeles can resume using race, language, location, and job type as factors in stopping individuals.
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