Community advocates ‘preparing for the worst’ after Supreme Court ICE decision

Milwaukee civil rights organizers say they are “preparing for the worst” after a decision this week by the U.S. Supreme Court focused on immigration enforcement.

The court ruling, a win for the Trump administration, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Los Angeles can stop individuals solely based on race, language or occupation. The decision lifted a lower federal court’s temporary halt to those immigration sweeps.

Community advocates held a press conference Tuesday morning responding to the ruling, which they called “shocking” and “disappointing.”

Darryl Morin is the national president of Forward Latino — a nonprofit, nonpartisan service and advocacy organization with members and affiliates across 29 states. He said there is one question at the heart of the court’s decision: “should the federal government be allowed to detain individuals simply because they’re Latino or Hispanic?”

“According to the Supreme Court? That answer is, shockingly, yes,” Morin said. “According to Justice Kavanaugh, merely speaking Spanish, living in a Latino neighborhood, frequenting a Latino-owned business or holding certain jobs when combined with one’s ethnicity is enough to justify detention by the federal government.”

In July, masked federal agents roved neighborhoods in Los Angeles, stopping and questioning those who they perceived to be Hispanic or Latino. Soon after the Los Angeles raids, the American Civil Liberties Union and others filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration calling the practice unconstitutional. 

A district court issued a preliminary injunction, supported by an appeal, which paused the sweeps. The Court’s 6-3 decision came after the federal government filed an emergency request to continue raids while the court case is ongoing.

The court majority declined to state a reasoning for their decision, but Justice Brett Kavanaugh offered a concurring opinion. In it, he states that immigration stops “based on reasonable suspicion of illegal presence” have been integral to immigration enforcement in the United States for many decades and through numerous presidencies.

Rev. Paul Erickson, a bishop for the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, believes the ruling affects everyone living in the U.S.

“I speak today not to be an alarmist, but to make sure that we are all alert to the fact that our democracy is under assault when we cannot rely on the highest court of our land to uphold our basic constitutional protections, allowing ICE officials to apprehend folks based on how they look, where they work, how they speak,” Erickson said. “The rights of every single one of us are at risk.”

The community organizers called on Wisconsinites to record, take photos and ask agents questions to ensure raids are lawful. They are also distributing “know your rights” cards in English and Spanish to help residents prepare for future ICE operations.