Supreme Court Ruling: NOEM v. VASQUEZ PERDOMO

On September 8th, 2025, the Supreme Court released an official document addressing illegal immigration that allowed immigration officers to make “investigative stops” in L.A. in which the stops are based on “presence at particular locations,” such as bus stops, day laborer pick-up sites, car washes, agricultural sites, and other such locations, as well as being based on an individual’s type of work, “speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent,” and on “apparent race or ethnicity.”¹ People fear that this 6-3 decision has “[cleared] the way for racial profiling;”² that it allows the detainment of individuals based on their race and anyone they assume to have illegally entered the country. According to the American Immigration Council, this “endorses ICE and Border Patrol targeting any Latinos they observe in Los Angeles speaking Spanish or working in low-income jobs, and then demanding their papers. ”Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of the dissenting justices, warned that this puts Latinos in danger of becoming “second-class citizens.”² Residents of Los Angeles also express similar concerns, as shown in the image below of demonstrators holding up protest signs at a press conference discussing the Supreme Court ruling. 

On the other side of the ruling is the current administration, which has hailed the ruling as a victory for Trump’s mass deportation campaign.³ Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a justice appointed by Donald Trump, wrote about the relevance that race held, among other “‘common sense’ indicators,” (i.e. work in agriculture or construction and limited proficiency in English), in “forming a ‘reasonable suspicion’ to interrogate individuals about their immigration status.”³ While this ruling brings about many concerns and questions about what else is in store for the residents of the U.S., it is important to note that according to the American Immigration Council, this ruling isn’t final by any means. A federal judge will hold a hearing that will determine whether the ruling will lead to permanent action. Until then, it’s pretty clear that those in Los Angeles will continue to organize demonstrations against the current administration’s course of action.

SOURCES:

¹25A169 Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo (09/08/2025) 

²https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/supreme-courts-decision-racial-profiling-immigration-raids/ 

³ US supreme court ‘effectively legalized racial profiling’, immigration experts warn