Supreme Court Allows Trump to Resume Sweeping Immigration Raids in Los Angeles 

The Supreme Court cleared the way for federal agents to resume sweeping immigration raids in Los Angeles on Monday, delivering a boost to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort.

The court’s conservative majority overruled a federal judge’s July 11 order that blocked federal agents from stopping or detaining people without “reasonable suspicion” they are in the country illegally.

U.S. District Judge Maame Frimpong had argued that the Trump administration's actions likely violated the Constitution's Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures because they targeted people based on accents, profile, and occupation.

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But in a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court granted an emergency request from the Justice Department to put a hold on the order, allowing the raids to resume.   

In a concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that “apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion," but it can be a “'relevant factor' when considered along with other salient factors.”

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.

“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. Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent,” Justice Sotomayor wrote in her dissent.

Justice Sotomayor called the decision “another grave misuse of our emergency docket.”

The emergency appeal submitted by the Justice Department argued that the court-ordered restrictions on what the administration has described as “roving” raids in Los Angeles were equivalent to a “straitjacket” around the administration’s deportation campaign.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in an emergency application to the Supreme Court that profiling targets improved the likelihood that they would come into contact with someone who is in the country illegally. 

“No one thinks that speaking Spanish or working in construction always creates reasonable suspicion,” Sauer wrote. “Nor does anyone suggest those are the only factors federal agents ever consider. But in many situations, such factors — alone or in combination — can heighten the likelihood that someone is unlawfully present in the United States, above and beyond the 1-in-10 base line odds in the district.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi lauded the Supreme Court’s decision on X. 

“Now, ICE can continue carrying out roving patrols in California without judicial micromanagement. We will continue fighting and winning for @POTUS agenda in court,” the post reads.

The Los Angeles raids fall into a broader battle between California Governor Gavin Newsom and President Trump, who deployed the National Guard in Los Angeles in June, a decision that a federal judge deemed illegal.