Supreme Court ruling hands win to Trump administration's immigration raids
The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Trump administration, allowing federal agents to conduct immigration raids without "reasonable suspicion."
The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Trump administration, allowing federal agents to conduct immigration raids without "reasonable suspicion."
The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Trump administration, allowing federal agents to conduct immigration raids without "reasonable suspicion."
The Supreme Court to overturn a lower court's requirement that immigration agents must have "reasonable suspicion" before stopping and arresting people, including U.S. citizens. The decision gives federal agents fewer restrictions when conducting immigration raids across the country.
The case stems from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Southern California, where an appeals court had previously ruled that agents could not stop and arrest people based on their appearance, language, job, or location. The Trump administration argued that the ruling was too restrictive.
Monday's Supreme Court decision wipes out the appeals court ruling, though civil rights advocates argue the arrests violate people's rights and intrude on their liberty.
"There have been these really long-standing concerns about racial profiling and the need for immigration officials to have a reason to be pulling someone over and arresting them, for example, other than the color of their skin," Kathleen Bush-Joseph, of the nonpartisan think tank Migration Policy Institute (MPI), said. "I think we will continue to see these be issues moving forward, because the Trump administration is pressing to try to arrest and detain so many people."
With the legal win, the Trump administration is now moving forward with its intensified immigration crackdown, announcing Operation "Midway Blitz" in Chicago on Monday, which targets undocumented immigrants with criminal records.
Over the past weekend, agents carried out more raids in Boston, while video footage also showed a worksite raid in Georgia at an electric vehicle (EV) battery plant near Savannah, which the administration called "the largest single-site raid in history." Nearly 500 people, most of them South Korean nationals, were reportedly detained.
Experts say that the EV battery plant raid in Georgia could pose challenges to the administration's national security goals.
While the administration seeks a hardline immigration crackdown, it also aims to partner with allies, like South Korea, to build a supply chain that competes with adversaries like China. Bush-Joseph suggests that raiding a factory built by an ally and detaining their workers could ultimately hinder progress needed for the U.S. to outcompete adversaries like China.
"The Trump administration is saying that having such a large unauthorized population of immigrants and people in the workforce is a national security threat in and of itself," Bush-Joseph said. "At the same time, it's trying to balance these negotiations with other countries, who it's trying to get to take back its nationals."
President Donald Trump has threatened to go even further on his immigration crackdown, with plans to extend raids to cities like Baltimore and New Orleans.
Watch the latest on the Trump administration's immigration crackdown: