Dive Brief:
- The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to block a July 11 ruling by a federal judge in Los Angeles barring federal agents from stopping suspected undocumented immigrants based on apparent race or ethnicity; speaking in Spanish or accented English; being present at locations such as bus stops, car washes or day laborer pickup sites; or the type of work they do.
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In the application for an immediate administrative stay in the case, Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem, Solicitor General D. John Sauer states that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are entitled to rely on these factors, which “can heighten the likelihood that someone is unlawfully present in the United States.”
- “In America, it is wrong to racially profile people making an honest living and snatch them from parking lots, car washes and fruit stands based on their skin color or the language they speak,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement Thursday.
Dive Insight:
On June 6, ICE agents arrived in Los Angeles to conduct “what federal officials have described as ‘the largest Mass Deportation Operation … in History,’” U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong wrote in the July 11 ruling.
After protests against the raids broke out in downtown Los Angeles, President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of California Army National Guard soldiers and U.S. Marines. The Marines began withdrawing July 21.
On July 2, the city of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County and seven other cities within the county filed a motion to intervene in a federal class action lawsuit alleging federal agents engaged in “unconstitutional and unlawful immigration raids by targeting Angelenos based on their perceived race and ethnicity and also denying detainees constitutionally mandated due process.” This resulted in the July 11 temporary restraining order, which prohibits ICE from continuing these tactics in seven California counties, including Los Angeles.
On Aug. 1, a federal appeals court denied the Trump administration’s request for a stay of the temporary restraining order. “This decision reaffirms that nobody is above the law — not even the federal government,” Lindsay Toczylowski, president and CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said in a statement.
Sauer states in the application that the district court’s injunction “significantly interferes with federal enforcement efforts across a region that is larger and more populous than many countries and that has become a major epicenter of the immigration crisis.”
“What makes someone a target of ICE is that they are in our country illegally — NOT their skin color,” the Department of Homeland Security posted on X Thursday.
