We Stand with Immigrants Against Racial Profiling

Photo (above): CRLA CEO and President Jessica Manriquez Jewell with her father, a proud U.S. Navy veteran

The US Supreme Court handed down a ruling Monday that allows ICE agents to resume aggressive patrols in Los Angeles and use race, language, and occupation in determining who to detain. The Supreme Court in effect just gave the green light to racial profiling.  

As the daughter of immigrants, this feels intensely personal. My father served our country for over a decade, yet I still remember seeing the pain in his eyes when someone questioned whether he was a veteran because of the way he looked. That memory reminds me of how fragile respect and acceptance can be—and how quickly stereotypes and assumptions can cloud our humanity. 

SCOTUS "Shadow Docket" Threatens Justice for All

The Supreme Court handed down this decision through the “shadow docket,” a procedure intended for emergencies but increasingly used to establish policies without the transparency and deliberation of the Supreme Court merit docket.  

This ruling isn’t just a legal matter; it chips away at the foundations of our rights in this country. The erosion of constitutional protections is happening quicker than many of us ever anticipated. Equality under the law is fast becoming U.S. history rather than a core principle on which our economy and society depend.  

Earlier this year, this same court upheld bans on considering race in college admissions. Now they’ve turned around and allowed race as a factor in immigration profiling, exacerbating unfair villainization of immigrants and portraying hardworking members of our community as inherently suspicious.  

Immigrants Build Safer, More Prosperous Communities

Immigrants build businesses, raise families, volunteer in our schools, and enrich our communities. They pay taxes. They risk their lives for the good of this country everywhere from the military to the agricultural fields. They make up the resilience and beauty of the tapestry of rural California and beyond.  

Imagine what could be possible if we directed the energy spent on destructive and discriminatory raids towards expanding access to health care, safe and affordable housing, quality education, fair wages, and worker protections. These are the real building blocks of safer and more prosperous communities. These are also the goals immigrants and other rural Californians tell us are most important to them and on which we’ve focused our advocacy for nearly 60 years.  

This ruling is not just a legal setback; this is a moral setback. It demands our voice, our empathy, and our advocacy. Now more than ever, we need to stand with and advocate for immigrants in ways that honor our shared humanity and establish lasting solutions for all. ¿Si no, a donde vamos a parar?