Donald Trump’s administration’s mass immigration drive has met various hindrances in the courts, and now the administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow immigration officers to continue arresting people based on their ethnicity and the language they speak.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been facing criticism, particularly over its drives to enforce mass immigration in Southern California. They have reportedly been approaching residents in masks while heavily armed, often depending on how their ethnicity appears. There have also been cases where residents speaking Spanish were treated as suspected illegal immigrants for that reason alone. In the wake of protests in Los Angeles and an ugly public spat between the president and Governor Gavin Newsom, the battle has now been carried over by advocacy groups into the courts.
After these groups filed lawsuits against the administration, detention based on ethnicity was resoundingly blocked and declared unlawful by a U.S. District Court. There were fears that such stops infringed upon people’s Fourth Amendment rights, which protect Americans from being seized or searched without a warrant.
Trump’s Justice Department, however, argued, “No one thinks that speaking Spanish or working in construction always creates reasonable suspicion. But in many situations, such factors – alone or in combination – can heighten the likelihood that someone is unlawfully present in the United States.”
The administration has stated it would prefer to rely on these factors when assessing who might be an illegal immigrant. To counter the string of unfavorable rulings it has received, the administration has now moved to the Supreme Court with more than 20 emergency appeals.
Reportedly, their argument in the Supreme Court will look to a late June ruling to draw precedent. In that case, lower courts were given limited abilities when it came to blocking the President’s agenda. It’s worth noting that while Trump has been in frequent conflict with the judicial branch, whenever a matter reaches the Supreme Court he often prevails.
ICE has drawn the ire of many Americans. Reports suggest that the flaunting of normal detention procedures has even encouraged the rise of copycat vigilantes arresting people across the country without identification or legal authority. ICE has condemned these acts but has not significantly changed its own approach, leaving room for confusion between its officers and the vigilantes.
Trump’s administration has argued that their stops should be reinstated because they might produce results. According to CNN, the administration stated, “Rather than limiting relief to the named respondents, the court enjoined the government as to any detentive stops of anyone among the 20 million inhabitants of the Central District of California – whether those stops affect respondents or not.”
The lower court, however, argued that if ICE agents are not aware of the identity of those they detain in advance, they cannot possibly discern whether they are among the individuals covered by the ruling. Critics and observers are now questioning whether Trump had a workable plan to enforce his mass immigration policy within the bounds of the law in the first place.
