Supreme Court ruling allows ICE to use racial profiling in Los Angeles raids

Civil rights groups warn that Trump’s immigration crackdown has been given a green light to target Latinos across Southern California.

The US Supreme Court on Monday lifted restrictions on federal immigration agents in Los Angeles, granting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) broad authority to stop and detain individuals based on race, language, or type of work. The decision marks a significant victory for the Trump administration, which has pursued mass detention and deportation operations in immigrant communities across the country.

The 6–3 ruling came after the administration appealed a July order by Judge Maame E. Frimpong of the US District Court for the Central District of California, which had barred ICE agents from making stops based solely on race, ethnicity, language, or certain jobs such as day-laborer or farm work. Frimpong wrote that a “mountain of evidence” showed ICE and other federal agents violating the Constitution’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Civil rights attorneys and immigrant advocacy groups, including the ACLU, had filed the original lawsuit after documenting widespread raids across Los Angeles in which both immigrants and US citizens were stopped. The plaintiffs described “indiscriminate immigration operations” in which “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.”

Among those plaintiffs was Jason Brian Gavidia, a US citizen, who was seized by masked agents outside a tow yard in June. He later recounted how agents slammed him against a fence and demanded to know what hospital he had been born at, despite his repeated insistence that he was an American. He was released after producing identification.

Another plaintiff, Pedro Vasquez Perdomo, was arrested at a bus stop without a warrant while waiting to be picked up for work. In a statement after the Supreme Court ruling, Perdomo said: “When Ice grabbed me, they never showed a warrant or explained why. I was treated like I didn’t matter—locked up, cold, hungry, and without a lawyer. Now, the supreme court says that’s okay? That’s not justice. That’s racism with a badge.”