In Los Angeles, immigration police authorized to resume racial profiling

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, September 8, lifted restrictions on federal immigration enforcement (ICE) enforcement in Los Angeles. A "great decision," said deportation policy chief Tom Homan. "We don't use racial profiling," he said, as the restrictions were ordered by a federal court to prevent racial profiling.

The nation's highest court ruled by a vote of six—those of the conservative justices—to three, pending a decision by the appeals court on the merits or a referral to the court. The court did not provide a reason for its decision, but conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted that "illegal immigration is particularly pronounced in the Los Angeles area," where undocumented people are estimated to make up 10 percent of the population.

"These individuals tend to congregate in certain locations to seek day-to-day work (...) that doesn't require paperwork and is therefore particularly attractive to illegal immigrants ," he added. "Many of those who are illegally in the Los Angeles area are from Mexico or Central America and don't speak much English."

While the Department of Homeland Security announced on the social network X that ICE would "continue to flood the area in Los Angeles," the Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, denounced in a press release a pass to "target Latinos," a decision paving the way for "a parade of racial terror in Los Angeles."

Latino residents felt unfairly targeted in early June when ICE ramped up raids in the Californian megalopolis. Many had denounced the street raids conducted by masked agents as racial profiling. Supported by various organizations, three immigrants arrested at a bus stop and two Hispanic Americans checked by ICE filed complaints.

In July, a federal judge agreed with them, temporarily banning arrests based on four factors, alone or in combination: ethnicity, speaking Spanish or English with a foreign accent, an individual's occupation, or whether they are in a particular location—such as a bus stop, a car wash, a farm, or a hardware store.

This decision was made in the name of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which requires "reasonable suspicion" and individualized suspicion for an arrest or search. While not disappearing, raids have since become much rarer.

Quoted in a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Pedro Vasquez Perdomo, one of the immigrants who filed the complaint, reacted: “When ICE arrested me, they never showed me a warrant or explained why. I was treated like I was worthless: locked up, in the cold, hungry, and without a lawyer. And now the Supreme Court says this is normal? That’s not justice. That’s racism with a badge.”

"It's not over," ACLU attorney Mohammad Tajsar insisted to reporters, as the case returns to court on September 24, when a lower court could decide whether to impose more lasting restrictions.