The U.S Supreme Court on Monday sided with U.S President Donald Trump’s administration, allowing federal agents to continue immigration raids in Southern California that critics say rely heavily in race, ethnicity, or language.
The decision puts on hold a lower court ruling that had restricted federal agents from stopping or detaining individuals without “reasonable suspicion” of being in the country illegally.
The order issued by Los Angeles-based District Judge Maame Frimpong in July 11, found that the raids likely violated the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.
The Supreme Court’s brief order, issued without explanation, allows the administration to resume operations while the case proceeds. The Court’s three liberal justices dissented sharply, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor warning that the policy risks treating “all Latinos, U.S citizens or not, who work low-wage jobs as targets for detention. “Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent”, she wrote.
The Department of Homeland Security said last week that the authorities had made 5,210 immigration arrests since June 6, and praised the work of his lead Commander, Gregory Bovino, whose “success in getting the worst out of the Loss Angeles region speaks for itself”.
The agency promised in an online post to “Continue to Flood the Zone of Los Angeles” after the court decision.
The region has been a top priority for Trump administration strategy has spurred protests and deployment of the National Guard and Marines.
The number of raids in Los Angeles area appeared to slow shortly after Frimpong’s order came down in July, but recently they have become more frequent again, including an operation in which agents jumped out of the back of a rented box truck and made arrests at an Los Angeles Home Deport Store as the administration carries out the president’s goal of mass deportations.
-9News Nigeria.
