The Latest From LA

Susan Estrich on Aug 14, 2025

The latest from the streets of LA -- ICE Seeks Supreme Court Approval for Racial Profiling. That's what they're doing. As I wrote in my last column, in June, the federal district court found, discriminatory "roving patrols" of ICE agents terrorized Los Angeles and its residents, targeting not those who had committed crimes (remember those promises), but anyone who looked Hispanic or spoke Spanish or was hanging out in Hispanic neighborhoods where men find jobs, at car washes and at Home Depot parking lots.

In early July, a federal judge put a stop to it, issuing a temporary restraining order covering that district and providing that the government "may not rely solely, alone or in combination," on race or ethnicity; on a person's speaking Spanish, or English with an accent; or on a person's presence at a particular location, such as a day-laborer or agricultural site, or type of work performed to establish reasonable suspicion to stop and detain people.

The judge, in her 52-page opinion, pointed to a "mountain of evidence" of roundups of random Hispanic people by armed agents wearing masks. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the order. Things quieted down. The military withdrew from the war of boredom. And then two things happened.

The first was the "Trojan Horse" operation of driving a Penske box truck into a Home Depot parking lot in a Hispanic neighborhood, leading to agents running after day laborers and whoever else happened to be there, in flagrant violation of the court order.

The second, and the more dangerous in the long run, is the solicitor general's decision to seek an emergency stay of the order from the United States Supreme Court, which involves convincing the court that racial profiling is probably OK. This is what the government argued:

"When immigration-enforcement stops involve briefly detaining a suspected illegal alien, they must comply with the Fourth Amendment's reasonable-suspicion requirement -- a low bar that 'is considerably less than a preponderance.' United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 7 (1989). Like most Fourth Amendment tests, that context-specific inquiry requires considering the totality of the circumstances. And here, those circumstances necessarily include that illegal presence is widespread in the Central District, where 1 in every 10 people is an illegal alien; that many locations unlawfully employ illegal aliens and are known to hire them on a day-to-day basis; that certain types of jobs -- like day labor, landscaping, and construction -- are most attractive to illegal aliens because they often do not require paper-work; that the vast majority of illegal aliens in the District come from Mexico or Central America; and that many only speak Spanish. Needless to say, no one thinks that speaking Spanish or working in construction always creates reasonable suspicion. Nor does anyone suggest those are the only factors federal agents ever consider. But in many situations, such factors -- alone or in combination -- can heighten the likelihood that someone is unlawfully present in the United States, above and beyond the 1-in-10 baseline odds in the District. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are entitled to rely on these factors when ramping up enforcement of immigration laws in the District."

When you get past the legalese, the import is clear. What they say on the streets is true. It's not a safe place to be if you have brown skin and speak Spanish. That's enough -- the one in 10 goes up real fast if you add in race and ethnicity, none of which has any resemblance to the individualized showing you're supposed to have even to meet the lower-level reasonable suspicion standard. Race and ethnicity can be taken into account. Not for anything good, mind you. Just the bad stuff -- ramped up or rounded up. I wonder how all this will play in D.C.? Who will they round up there?

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To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.