The Supreme Court has lifted restrictions that stopped the Trump administration from carrying out immigration related raids in the Los Angeles area.
The ruling is a win for the Trump administration, which vowed to conduct record-level deportations.
The justices of the conservative majority court were divided 6-3. The overturning now allows agents to stop suspects based solely on their race, language or job, while a legal challenge to the recent immigration sweeps in LA works its way through the courts.
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that the decision of the lower courts' restraining order went too far in restricting how ICE agents could carry out stops or question suspected unlawful immigrants.
"To be clear, apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion," he wrote.
"However, it can be a 'relevant factor' when considered along with other salient factors."
The three Liberal Supreme Court justices issued a strong dissent as Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that "countless people in the Los Angeles area have been grabbed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed simply because of their looks, their accents, and the fact they make a living by doing manual labour".
"Today, the Court needlessly subjects countless more to these exact same indignities," she wrote.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who is a democrat, called the ruling “dangerous” and “un-American”.
“I want the entire nation to hear me when I say this isn’t just an attack on the people of Los Angeles, this is an attack on every person in every city in this country,” she said.
“This decision will lead to more working families being torn apart and fear of the very institutions meant to protect – not persecute – our people.”
