Washington, D.C. — Today, the U.S. Supreme Court removed the restrictions that barred the Trump administration from conducting immigration-related raids around Los Angeles based on racially charged criteria. In response, William Roberts, senior vice president for Rights and Justice at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:
The highest court in the country just effectively shoved aside decades of precedent barring racial profiling as a constitutional violation. This opens the door to roving groups of masked, armed, and unidentified federal agents carrying out raids based not on reasonable suspicion, as the law requires, but racial stereotypes, including how a person looks, where they work, and the language they speak.
Now, this administration, which has shown no restraint in using violence to detain immigrants regardless of documentation—and even U.S. citizens—has the green light to continue its blatantly racist attack on the people of Los Angeles, where it may detain first and ask questions later, putting the local Latino population at risk of unconstitutional seizure and detention.
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Mishka Espey at [email protected].