WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration Monday to continue sweeping immigration raids in the Los Angeles area that target individuals based on broad criteria such as their occupation or whether they speak Spanish.
The justices halted a lower court ruling that restricted what critics have dubbed “roving” raids conducted by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while the matter is considered by an appeals court.
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh issued a brief concurrence explaining the order, while the court’s three liberal justices issued a blistering dissent.
“Immigration stops based on reasonable suspicion of illegal presence have been an important component of US immigration enforcement for decades, across several presidential administrations,” Kavanaugh wrote. “… “The interests of individuals who are illegally in the country in avoiding being stopped by law enforcement for questioning is ultimately an interest in evading the law. That is not an especially weighty legal interest.”
Last month, Los Angeles US District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong issued a temporary restraining order barring the Trump administration from pursuing immigration raids premised on four factors: race and ethnicity, specific locations such as bus stops, type of work an individual performs and speaking Spanish.
Read the full article here
