The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement activities.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in an concurring opinion that he recognized “and fully appreciate that many (not all, but many) illegal immigrants come to the United States to escape poverty and the lack of freedom and opportunities in their home country,” although “the fact remains that, under the laws passed by Congress and the President, they are acting illegally by remaining in the United States.”
“And by illegally immigrating into and remaining in the country, they are not only violating the immigration laws, but also jumping in front of those noncitizens who follow the rules and wait in line to immigrate into the United States through the legal immigration purposes,” he wrote. “For those reasons, the interests of illegal immigrants in evading questioning (and thus evading detection of their illegal presence) are not particularly substantial as a legal matter.”
Justice Sonya Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, issued a dissenting opinion which read, “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 new order pauses a temporary restraining order issued by Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in July that required ICE to maintain detailed records of immigration-related stops, document the justification for each, and develop clear guidelines for what constitutes “reasonable suspicion.”
Frimpong’s ruling blocked ICE agents from “making investigative stops in the Los Angeles area when the stops are based on the following factors or combination of factors (i) presence at particular locations such as bus stops, car washes, day laborer pickup sites, agricultural sites, and the like; (ii) the type of work one does; (iii) speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent; and (iv) apparent race or ethnicity,” Kavanaugh explained.
