A lower court had blocked ICE from detaining people by relying on appearance, accent, or occupation as a proxy for immigration status. On appeal, the Supreme Court, through a shadow-docket order, lifted that injunction. In plain English, ICE can once again use these factors to decide whom to stop, question, and detain.
Think about that. Being brown. Speaking Spanish. Working in a field that "looks like" it hires immigrants. Standing on a certain street corner. All of that is now fair game.
Justice Sotomayor, joined by Kagan and Jackson, called it out for what it is: normalizing second-class citizenship for people who don't fit the "right" look or sound. "We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job," she wrote.
This isn't law enforcement. It's legalized harassment. It gives ICE open season on communities of color. And it guts the Fourth Amendment’s promise that all people have "the right … to be secure … against unreasonable searches and seizures."
As a result, communities already living under fear now face even more uncertainty. When going to work or speaking your native language can be treated as cause for detention, the law stops feeling like protection and starts feeling like a weapon.
But let's be clear for employers: nothing in this ruling gives you a license to discriminate. Immigration enforcement is not a workplace defense, and treating workers differently because of race, national origin, or immigration status will still land your company in serious legal trouble.