SCOTUS Lifts Restrictions on LA ICE Raids, Opens Door for Racial Profiling
The high court ruled in favor of ICE agents making stops without "reasonable suspicion
A table covered with a cloth reading "ICE Out of LA" sits under a canopy next to the job center for day laborers outside a Home Depot in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Throughout the past year, the Trump administration has been on a mission to ramp up immigration raids across the nation in order to reach ICE’s arrest quotas. During this time, the Latinx community has faced increased harassment and discrimination, with many being profiled for speaking Spanish or being of Latin American descent. Now, the Supreme Court just made it legal for ICE to racially profile Latinx people in the sweeping immigration raids happening in Los Angeles.
On Monday, September 8, the US Supreme Court lifted a federal judge’s order barring agents from making stops without “reasonable suspicion.” The 6-3 decision allows agents to stop people based on their race or ethnicity, language, or job, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh writing that while “ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion,” it could be a “relevant factor.” The Supreme Court’s three liberal justices issued a strong dissent penned by Justice Sonia Sotomayor:
“Countless people in the Los Angeles area have been grabbed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed simply because of their looks, their accents, and the fact they make a living by doing manual labour,” 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.”
The decision reverses an order by US District Judge Maame E. Frimpong, who said there is a “mountain of evidence” showing the raids were violating the Constitution, that halted the raids. Judge Frimpong said the Trump admin can’t rely on factors including “apparent race or ethnicity” or “speaking Spanish” alone to stop individuals and barred ICE agents from conducting stops based solely on the type of work someone does or their presence at locations including bus stops, agricultural sites, or car washes. She also pointed out that ICE’s indiscriminate “roving patrols” may violate the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution prohibiting unreasonable government searches and seizures.
Despite this, the Supreme Court said that these actions could be considered constitutional by federal courts, and while the decision only pertained to Judge Frimpong’s temporary order, it sets a precedent for how the Court will approach similar cases in the future. Legal advocates, activist groups, and figures including LA Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom have criticized the decision, with many warning that it puts constitutional freedoms at risk and effectively legalizes racial and ethnic discrimination. In a statement posted to Instagram, ACLU National Legal Director Cecillia Wang said the decision puts people “at grave risk.”
“For anyone perceived as Latino by an ICE agent, this means living in a fearful ‘papers please’ regime, with risks of violent ICE arrests and detentions,” Wang said.
The case isn’t over yet, as a legal challenge is still moving through LA’s lower courts, but per the Supreme Court’s decision, ICE’s profiling tactics are allowed again for now. According to the Pew Research Center, around 5.9 million people living in LA are of Hispanic or Latino descent as of 2021. Nearly 30 percent of all Latinos in California are undocumented or living with someone who is undocumented, according to a report from the Center for Migration.
