Welcome to The Logoff: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Los Angeles can indiscriminately target people for immigration stops on the basis of race and several other factors, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.
What just happened? In a 6-3 decision from the Court’s “shadow docket,” the six Republican justices reversed a lower-court injunction preventing ICE agents in LA from relying on any of four factors, solely or in combination, in their decision to make immigration stops:
- “Apparent race or ethnicity”;
- Speaking Spanish or accented English;
- Their “presence in a particular location”;
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And their type of work
Monday’s decision isn’t the end of the case, Noem v. Perdomo, which could work its way back to SCOTUS — but it’s a fair sign of where the question is likely to ultimately end up.
What has ICE been doing in LA? ICE has targeted LA for especially large-scale and indiscriminate immigration raids since earlier this year, prompting widespread protests and the federalization of California’s National Guard by President Donald Trump in response. In some cases, federal agents have carried military-style weapons and equipment when conducting raids, including using flash-bang grenades on bystanders.
What did the Court’s liberal justices say? Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson in a dissent, protested the Court’s process and decision.
“That decision is yet another grave misuse of our emergency docket,” Sotomayor wrote. “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.”
What’s the big picture? Monday’s decision is a fairly unsurprising outcome, as my colleague Ian Millhiser wrote last month. The Court has been incredibly compliant with Trump’s preferences, and it’s particularly difficult to secure an injunction against overreach by federal law enforcement.
That said, the implications of Monday’s decision are still concerning — as Sotomayor cautions, the decision threatens to create “a second-class citizenship status,” where US citizens and legal residents can face arbitrary detention for their skin color or accent.
