Supreme Court allows ICE raids in Los Angeles to resume

The Supreme Court on Monday temporarily cleared the way for federal immigration authorities to resume large scale enforcement operations in the Los Angeles area by granting an emergency stay of a lower court injunction that had barred such raids. The 6-to-3 decision, issued without an explanation, lifts restrictions while the underlying case continues in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The stay responds to a federal judge's July ruling that Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Los Angeles County likely violated the Fourth Amendment. That injunction, later upheld by the Ninth Circuit, prohibited detentions based on broad criteria that plaintiffs said singled out Latinos, including appearing Hispanic, speaking Spanish or accented English, working particular low wage jobs, or being present at locations where immigrants gather. Plaintiffs and local advocacy groups say the operations involved masked, armed agents who stopped and seized people before determining their immigration status.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a forceful dissent, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, calling the majority action "unconscionably irreconcilable...