Supreme Court Upholds Immigration Raids in Los Angeles

Sat Sep 13 2025 13:54:31 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

A recent Supreme Court ruling permits immigration raids in Los Angeles to continue, allowing federal authorities to conduct stops based on race and other factors amid ongoing protests and legal challenges.

In a decisive 6-3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has lifted a restraining order that prevented immigration agents from conducting raids in Los Angeles without reasonable suspicion. The decision, which has garnered significant backlash from civil rights advocates, supports the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement strategy, permitting stops based potentially on race and other demographics. Critics, including local officials, argue that the ruling endangers civil liberties and facilitates racial profiling.

The US Supreme Court has ruled sweeping immigration raids in Los Angeles can continue for now, lifting a federal judge's order that had barred agents from making stops without reasonable suspicion.

The Monday ruling is a win for President Donald Trump, who has vowed to conduct record-level deportations of migrants in the country illegally.

The 6-3 decision of the conservative-majority court allows agents to stop suspects based solely on their race, language or job, while a legal challenge to the recent immigration sweeps in LA works its way through the courts.

The liberal justices dissented, saying the decision puts constitutional freedoms at risk.

Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in Monday's decision that the lower court's restraining order went too far in restricting how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents could carry out stops or questioning of suspected unlawful migrants.

To be clear, apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion, he wrote. However, it can be a 'relevant factor' when considered along with other salient factors.

The Supreme Court's three liberal justices issued a strong dissent penned by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who wrote that countless people in the Los Angeles area have been grabbed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed simply because of their looks, their accents, and the fact they make a living by doing manual labour.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass criticized the ruling, calling it dangerous — it's un-American and threatens the fabric of personal freedom in the United States of America.

The decision has immediate implications, reinstating the authority of ICE to conduct operations that some argue are in violation of constitutional protections against unreasonable searches.

According to advocacy groups, since June, raids have been conducted indiscriminately at locations like Home Depot, causing civil unrest and prompting calls for an end to such practices as they deny individuals access to legal counsel.

This ruling also highlights the ongoing tensions between federal immigration enforcement policies and local governance, particularly in immigrant-heavy cities like Los Angeles.

The Supreme Court's decision allows the Trump administration to continue its aggressive stance on immigration enforcement as the legal challenges unfold, suggesting potential future ramifications for similar policies nationwide.