U.S. supreme court authorizes arrests based on race

Under the decision, U.S. immigration authorities can now identify and detain individuals in Los Angeles, California, based on their skin color, accent, or the language they speak.

This ruling overturns a temporary order issued by a Los Angeles judge that had barred federal agencies—including the Department of Homeland Security—from conducting roving patrols that detained people solely on the basis of race, ethnicity, speaking Spanish or accented English, being present in certain locations such as bus stations, car washes, or farms, or the type of work they perform, without reasonable suspicion.

The court’s written opinion, spanning ten pages, argued that illegal immigration is particularly evident in the Los Angeles region.

The decision stated: “Around 10 percent of the Los Angeles area population is unlawfully present in the U.S.—roughly two million undocumented immigrants out of a total population of 20 million.”

The ruling permits immigration officers to detain individuals for questioning if, based on specific articulable facts, there is reasonable suspicion that the person is an undocumented immigrant in the U.S.

One Supreme Court justice wrote that such stops are reasonable and lawful when viewed in the context of the totality of circumstances.

However, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who dissented, condemned the decision as a blatant abuse.

Sotomayor stated: “We should not live in a country where the government can detain anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to hold a low-income job. I dissent.”

Lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California also denounced the decision.

In a public statement, the ACLU’s senior attorney said: “This decision is a devastating setback for the plaintiffs and for our communities, who for months have been subjected to stops by immigration officers based on skin color, occupation, or the language they speak.”

The U.S. government, in appealing to the Supreme Court, made clear that its enforcement operations in Southern California were race-related.

In early June, the U.S. government launched raids on immigrants across Los Angeles and nearby cities. During these operations, teams of armed and masked officers conducted stops in locations such as car washes, farms, and parks, detaining people in plain sight—often before even asking a single question.

These raids are part of the Trump administration’s agenda to deport hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants.

Reports confirm that many immigrants were arrested in these operations.