The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday sided with US President Donald Trump’s administration, allowing federal agents to continue immigration raids in Southern California that critics say rely heavily on race, ethnicity, or language.
The decision puts on hold a lower court ruling that had restricted federal agents from stopping or detaining individuals without “reasonable suspicion” of being in the country illegally. The order, issued by Los Angeles-based District Judge Maame Frimpong in July, found that the raids likely violated the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.
The Supreme Court’s brief order, issued without explanation, allows the administration to resume operations while the case proceeds. The court’s three liberal justices dissented sharply, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor warning that the policy risks treating “all Latinos, U.S. citizens or not, who work low-wage jobs” as targets for detention. “Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent,” she wrote.
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, concurring with the majority, argued that ethnicity alone cannot establish reasonable suspicion but could be considered alongside other factors. “If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, they promptly let the individual go,” he noted.
The Justice Department defended the raids, saying they are based on a “reasonably broad profile” in regions where undocumented residents make up a significant portion of the population.
The ruling is the latest in a series of victories for Trump at the Supreme Court, which has a 6–3 conservative majority. Since returning to office last year, Trump has pledged record-level deportations, with his administration setting a goal of 3,000 daily arrests. The raids, often involving masked and armed federal agents, have sparked fear in immigrant communities, fueled protests, and triggered multiple lawsuits.
