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racial profiling
Another Gift to Trump: Supreme Court Lifts Lower Court Ban on 'Blatant Racial Profiling' by ICE Agents
"The court has opened the door to profiling practices that will expose millions of Latinos to harassment, wrongful detention, and fear in their daily lives," said one organization.
Sep 08, 2025
The US Supreme Court on Monday gave its approval for federal immigration agents to stop and detain anyone in the Los Angeles area based on factors including "the type of work one does," a person's use of Spanish or accented English, or their "apparent race or ethnicity"—allowing what critics called "blatant racial profiling" to be used to carry out President Donald Trump's mass detention and deportation plan.
The court's three liberal justices dissented, but the right-wing majority sided with the Department of Homeland Security, whose agents in recent months have carried out sweeping raids across the Los Angeles area, including in incidents that have been caught on video and appear to be armed roundups of large randomized groups of Latino people—not operations targeted at arresting violent criminals, as the Trump administration has previously suggested.
The court did not provide an explanation of its reasoning, but Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a separate opinion expressing agreement with the ruling, saying the court was simply allowing immigration agents to use "commonsense" criteria for stopping and detaining people, including their English proficiency and the type of work they do.
In their dissenting opinion, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote, "We should not have to live in a country where then government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low-wage job."
"Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent," wrote Sotomayor.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council (AIC) said the ruling by the right-wing majority has troubling implications.
"Because a sizeable portion of Los Angeles's low-income Latino community is undocumented," he said, the court believes "it is inherently acceptable for [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to stop and question any Latino working a low-wage job that is seen seeking Spanish."
Civil rights groups joined several individuals in filing a lawsuit against the administration earlier this year, arguing that thousands of people in Los Angeles have been wrongly arrested in unconstitutional, "indiscriminate immigration operations."
"Individuals with brown skin are approached or pulled aside by unidentified federal agents, suddenly and with a show of force," the plaintiffs argued, "and made to answer questions about who they are and where they are from."
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents have been violating the US Constitution's Fourth Amendment, they said, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.
In July, Judge Maame E. Frimpong in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, ordered agents not to stop or arrest people in the Los Angeles area based on factors including race and ethnicity, language spoken, or their involvement in particular kinds of work including at day-laborer or farming sites.
The Trump administration later appealed to the Supreme Court, saying the lower court's order had unlawfully interfered with ICE operations and claiming agents use discretion to ensure they don't wrongfully include people in immigration sweeps.
The plaintiffs argued that the administration's "roving patrols have routinely stopped US citizens... without an individualized assessment of reasonable suspicion," including plaintiff Jason Brian Gavidia, who was approached by masked agents outside a tow yard and told them he was an American as they slammed him against a metal fence and took his phone and ID, demanding to know what hospital he'd been born at.
The Los Angeles Times reported in July that the majority of people arrested by ICE and other immigration agents have no criminal record.
The case the Supreme Court ruled on Monday is still pending before a federal appeals court, which could again restrict the administration's ability to racially profile residents.
But for now, AIC policy director Nayna Gupta said the Supreme Court ruling "greenlights the worst ICE and [Customs and Border Protection] practices we are seeing against Latino communities around the country."
"We can expect this racist enforcement to expand rapidly," said Gupta.
The ACLU of Southern California called the Supreme Court ruling "a devastating setback for communities" across the Los Angeles area.
Today, in a devastating setback for communities in the southland, SCOTUS granted the Trump administration’s request to resume its racist raids across Southern California while our case continues. We’re prepared to continue fighting for our immigrant loved ones and the Constitution.
— ACLU SoCal (@aclusocal.bsky.social) September 8, 2025 at 1:18 PM
A bipartisan group of the executive committee of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials called the decision "a troubling setback for civil rights and constitutional protections."
"The Constitution does not allow Americans to be stopped simply for speaking Spanish, waiting for work, or looking Latino. Reasonable suspicion must be based on evidence, not ethnicity," said the officials. "By siding with the administration, the court has opened the door to profiling practices that will expose millions of Latinos to harassment, wrongful detention, and fear in their daily lives. Whether at bus stops, workplaces, or public spaces, Latino communities will face the risk of being treated as suspects simply because of who they are or what they look like."
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LA Judge Orders ICE to Stop 'Indiscriminately Rounding Up' Immigrants Using Racial Profiling
"No matter the color of their skin, what language they speak, or where they work, everyone is guaranteed constitutional rights to protect them from unlawful stops," said an attorney with the ACLU of Southern California.
Jul 12, 2025
A federal judge in Los Angeles has ordered the Trump administration to stop carrying out indiscriminate immigration raids in the city and its surrounding areas, citing its use of "unconstitutional tactics," including racial profiling and denying the right to an attorney.
Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California wrote that there is a "mountain of evidence" that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents are "indiscriminately rounding up numerous individuals without reasonable suspicion" in violation of the Fourth Amendment during their "roving patrols" in the region.
She issued two temporary restraining orders against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). One bars agents from targeting individuals based on race or ethnicity; speaking Spanish or English with an accent; presence in specific locations such as bus stops, car washes, or agricultural sites; or type of employment. The second requires DHS to provide access to attorneys for those who are arrested.
The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other local legal organizations on behalf of five plaintiffs who said their rights were violated by immigration agents.
According to the complaint:
The raids in this district follow a common, systematic pattern. Individuals with brown skin are approached or pulled aside by unidentified federal agents, suddenly and with a show of force, and made to answer questions about who they are and where they are from. If they hesitate, attempt to leave, or do not answer the questions to the satisfaction of the agents, they are detained, sometimes tackled, handcuffed, and/or taken into custody.
In these interactions, agents typically have no prior information about the individual and no warrant of any kind. If agents make an arrest, contrary to federal law, they do not make any determination of whether a person poses a risk of flight before a warrant can be obtained. Also contrary to federal law, the agents do not identify themselves or explain why the individual is being arrested.
Two of the plaintiffs were U.S. citizens.
One of them, a dual U.S. and Mexican citizen, said he was questioned and detained by unidentified officers on three separate occasions while working at a car wash in Orange County. Agents insisted that his passport was fake and repeatedly asked if he was American.
Another U.S. citizen was told he was arrested because he "looked like an illegal alien." Agents with military-style rifles and handguns repeatedly asked him, "What hospital were you born at?" When he could not answer the question, an officer grabbed him and shoved him against a metal fence. After he showed the officers his Real ID, he says they took it and never returned it to him.
"No matter the color of their skin, what language they speak, or where they work, everyone is guaranteed constitutional rights to protect them from unlawful stops," said Mohammad Tajsar, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California.
"While it does not take a federal judge to recognize that marauding bands of masked, rifle-toting goons have been violating ordinary people’s rights throughout Southern California, we are hopeful that today’s ruling will be a step toward accountability for the federal government’s flagrant lawlessness that we have all been witnessing," he added.
Since early June, Southern California has been the epicenter of the Trump administration's "mass deportation" push, with thousands of immigrants detained—often by unidentified, masked agents—in sweeping raids that have traumatized Latino communities across the state.
Despite the administration publicizing the arrests of violent criminals, the vast majority of those arrested have no criminal history. More than 1,500 people have been disappeared, the ACLU said last week, "in order to meet arbitrary arrest quotas set by the Trump administration."
"Due process, access to counsel, dignity, and respect were not afforded to our loved ones, our friends, our neighbors as ICE plowed through our community in their obsessive, racially motivated quest for quotas," said Angelica Salas, executive director at Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA). "No one is above the law, and today’s decision reaffirms that President Trump and all its immigration enforcement apparatus must follow the Constitution."
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Critics Blast Trump Border Czar for Asserting ICE Can Detain People Based on 'Physical Appearance'
"Trump’s thugs will racially profile you, then go on national television to brag about getting away with it," commented Rep. Yvette Clark (D-N.Y.).
Jul 11, 2025
White House border czar Tom Homan on Friday stirred up outrage during a Fox News interview in which he declared that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents could detain people without probable cause based on a number of factors including their physical appearance.
After being asked about the possibility of a judge in California limiting the scope of ICE's law-enforcement activities, Homan declared that "people need to understand ICE officers and Border Patrol don't need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them, and question them."
He then outlined factors ICE agents could use that would justify detaining someone.
"They just need the totality of the circumstances," he claimed. "They just got through our observation, you know, get articulable facts based on their location, their occupation, their physical appearance, their actions."
Homan: "People need to understand ICE officers and Border Patrol don't need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them, and question them ... based on their physical appearance." pic.twitter.com/aQzwepaHpk
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 11, 2025
Homan's statement about not requiring probable cause to detain people contradicts a statement made in court this week by Thomas Giles, the assistant director of ICE who testified that the standard for making arrests "is we need to determine probable cause and determine alienage."
Many elected Democrats rushed to slam Homan for his statement about using "physical appearance" as a factor for determining whether someone warrants being detained.
"This is patently false," wrote Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) on X. "DHS has authority to question and search people coming into the country at points of entry. But ICE may not detain and question anyone without reasonable suspicion—and certainly not based on their physical appearance alone. This lawlessness must stop."
"Trump's thugs will racially profile you, then go on national television to brag about getting away with it," commented Rep. Yvette Clark (D-N.Y.).
"And there you have it," wrote Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), who weeks ago was forcibly removed by security forces while trying to ask Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem questions at a press event. "Under the Trump Administration, ICE and Border Patrol are being empowered to stop and question you based solely on how you look. No probable cause. No real reason. Just your 'physical appearance.' That's not justice—it's profiling."
"They're saying the quiet part out loud now," wrote Democratic New York State Sen. Gustavo Rivera. "Don't get it twisted: if we let them keep doing this, they'll find a reason to come for ANY ONE OF US soon enough."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, argued on X that there was some truth to Homan's statement as the Supreme Court ruled in 1975 that racial profiling can be used in immigration stops. He noted, however, "that decision was based on demographics at the time, and in the 50 years since, courts have invalidated it as used in Latino-heavy communities."
David Bier, the director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, accused Homan and the Trump administration of "admitting to participating in a criminal conspiracy against the Constitution of the United States" with his remarks.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) earlier this month filed a lawsuit in which it alleged that ICE agents in Los Angeles were racially profiling Latinos in the city and flouting federal laws when making arrests.
"Individuals with brown skin are approached or pulled aside by unidentified federal agents, suddenly and with a show of force, and made to answer questions about who they are and where they are from," the ACLU wrote. "If they hesitate, attempt to leave, or do not answer the questions to the satisfaction of the agents, they are detained, sometimes tackled, handcuffed, and/or taken into custody. In these interactions, agents typically have no prior information about the individual and no warrant of any kind. If agents make an arrest, contrary to federal law, they do not make any determination of whether a person poses a risk of flight before a warrant can be obtained. Also contrary to federal law, the agents do not identify themselves or explain why the individual is being arrested."
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