In a controversial ruling, the Supreme Court of Justice on September 8 struck down restrictions that had prevented the Trump administration from conducting immigration raids in the Los Angeles, California area based on racial profiling. That is, detaining people because of their physical features or because they speak Spanish. Multiple national entities, as well as civil rights organizations, warn that this sets a dangerous precedent.
In a 6–3 vote in the case known as Vásquez Perdomo v. Noem, the Supreme Court granted an emergency request from the Trump administration. With this, a temporary suspension of an order from a Los Angeles judge that prohibited “roving patrols” from arresting people on California streets and questioning them based on their appearance, language, job, or even location. Both a federal court in Los Angeles and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that such actions constituted unlawful racial discrimination.
However, this order is not final, but instead allows immigration agents to proceed with these actions while the case against such practices moves forward in the courts.
“An openly racist attack”
“The highest court in the country just effectively shoved aside decades of precedent barring racial profiling as a constitutional violation. This opens the door to roving groups of masked, armed, and unidentified federal agents carrying out raids based not on reasonable suspicion, as the law requires, but racial stereotypes, including how a person looks, where they work, and the language they speak”, said William Roberts, Vice President of Rights and Justice at the Center for American Progress.
“This administration, which has shown no restraint in using violence to detain immigrants regardless of documentation—and even U.S. citizens—has the green light to continue its blatantly racist attack on the people of Los Angeles, where it may detain first and ask questions later, putting the local Latino population at risk of unconstitutional seizure and detention,” he added.
“The Court has opened the door to racial profiling practices”
“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 National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) in a statement.
“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,” it said.
“We will keep fighting this case”
“Today's Supreme Court order puts people at grave risk, allowing federal agents in Southern California to target individuals because of their race, how they speak, the jobs they work, or just being at a bus stop or the car wash when ICE agents decide to raid a place. 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 detention,” said Cecillia Wang, national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
“The Supreme Court's order is outrageous because it includes no reasoning itself but puts on hold the well-reasoned opinions of the lower federal courts. We will fight on in this case and others for our fundamental right to go about our lives without being targeted by government agents based on racial profiling”, she concluded.
Find this article in Spanish here.