Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Supreme Court v ICE 1-13-26

The Supreme Court has recently allowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to conduct immigration stops in the Los Angeles area, lifting a lower court's block that had restricted agents from using factors like race, language (Spanish), location (e.g., car washes, construction sites), or employment type as grounds for stops, a decision that essentially greenlights more aggressive enforcement based on appearance and background, according to reports from September 2025. This ruling cleared the way for agents to target individuals more broadly, leading to concerns from civil rights groups about potential racial profiling.  

Key Details of the Ruling:

What was blocked: A lower court had barred ICE from stopping people without "reasonable suspicion" and solely based on characteristics like race, speaking Spanish, or working in certain industries.

What the Supreme Court did: The Court lifted these restrictions in September 2025, allowing these tactics to resume.

Impact: ICE agents can now consider factors like appearance, accent, location (like farms or car washes), and job type as grounds for immigration stops, nationwide. 

Context:

This decision came after earlier incidents where ICE agents detained U.S. citizens, leading to lawsuits and the initial restrictions.

The Supreme Court's order, issued in the case Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, was an emergency appeal that overturned parts of lower court rulings. 

What This Means:

Immigration enforcement actions, particularly in Southern California, can now proceed with fewer restrictions on agent discretion regarding profiling factors.

Advocacy groups, like the ACLU, have condemned the ruling, stating it enables racial profiling and puts Latino communities at risk. 

n 2025 and early 2026, the Supreme Court issued several rulings that significantly expanded the operational authority of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by lifting previous legal restrictions on enforcement tactics. 

The following key actions have allowed for increased ICE enforcement:

Resumption of Immigration Sweeps (Sept. 2025): In a 6–3 decision in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, the Supreme Court stayed a lower court's injunction that had blocked ICE from conducting raids and "roving patrols" in Los Angeles. This ruling allows agents to resume stops and questioning based on factors like ethnicity, language, and occupation to establish reasonable suspicion.

Expansion of Enforcement Discretion: Building on the 2023 ruling in United States v. Texas, the Court has consistently held that the executive branch has broad discretion to set its own arrest and deportation priorities. This prevents individual states from legally forcing the federal government to alter its enforcement focus or making more arrests than it deems necessary.

Termination of Protections (Oct. 2025): The Court allowed the immediate termination of Temporary

Protected Status (TPS) for certain groups, such as Venezuelans, which subjects formerly protected individuals to standard enforcement and removal procedures.

Elimination of Procedural Barriers: Recent rulings have shielded ICE from various forms of accountability, such as overturning orders that previously required "reasonable suspicion" for certain types of immigration stops. 

Pending Developments in 2026:
While the Court has cleared many immediate hurdles for ICE, some specific operational limits remain in litigation. For example, a consent decree prohibiting warrantless arrests in certain regions is currently in effect through February 2, 2026. A final decision on the legality of specific "roving patrol" tactics is not expected until June 2026. 

These legal explanations outline how the Supreme Court has broadened ICE's operational scope and the projected timeline for future legal decisions impacting immigration enforcement.

https://www.google.com/search?q=when+will+the+supreme+court+allow+ice+to+do+their+job

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

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