By: Manuel Legaspi
On September 4th, 2025, Federal Homeland Security agents brandishing firearms raided a Georgia factory and detained hundreds of workers.[1] This raid has been one of many under the current administration, with federal agents targeting workplaces across the country.[2] These workplace raids have instilled fear into workers and employers, as they threaten the livelihoods of millions.[3] To increase the speed of these deportations, the current administration has given immigration officials increased discretion for stops and seizures in a recent Supreme Court order.[4]
A recent Supreme Court order in Noem v. Perdomo[5] temporarily allows immigration officers to stop individuals based solely on four factors: (1) the type of location an individual is present at; (2) the type of work that the individual is presumed to do; (3) the individual’s language or accent; and (4) the individual’s “apparent race or ethnicity.”[6] This suspension of the district court’s temporary restraining order permits seemingly unconstitutional stops and seizures under the Fourth Amendment to speed up deportations.[7]
The temporary restraining order was filed in response to several forceful stops and arrests in California.[8] Kavanaugh directly states that this injunction will “chill lawful immigration enforcement efforts.”[9] This argument grants government agents increased discretion by letting them use these four factors alone for their searches and seizures.[10] He also posits that the stops for legal individuals are “typically brief,” and they may promptly go free after questioning.[11] A large portion of their argument is based on the Los Angeles area having a high proportion of individuals who meet the four factors.
While not explicitly racial profiling, the removal of the temporary restraining order gives increased discretion for immigration officials to lean on race and accent.[12] For a stop to be constitutional, an official must have a reasonable suspicion that an individual is undocumented.[13] Justice Kavanaugh, in his concurrence, states that apparent ethnicity alone is not enough for reasonable suspicion, but it is a relevant factor.[14]
In the dissent, Justice Sotomayor argued that these factors have been proven to be insufficient based on prior cases.[15] The factors that Kavanaugh has declared constitutional are facts that “describe[s] a very large category of presumably innocent people.”[16] Sotomayor posits that the four factors do not reflect the specific standards for the Fourth Amendment.[17] The majority of the population meets these criteria: nearly half of the Los Angeles area identifies as Hispanic or Latino, and more than half speak a language other than English.[18]
Under this new ruling, documented and undocumented individuals fit the necessary criteria for a reasonable stop.[19] This is a clear breach of the specific and objective basis for the Fourth Amendment and is unconstitutional.[20]
American citizens and undocumented individuals are scared to go to work over fears of being racially profiled and possibly detained.[21] In her dissent, Sotomayor tells the stories of several American citizens being unconstitutionally threatened and harassed simply because of their race and appearance.[22] In 2023, undocumented immigrants reached a population of 14 million. [23] Furthermore, the U.S. Hispanic population reached 62.1 million in 2020.[24]
Allowing a significant portion of the working population to be stopped and interrogated at any time threatens many industries.[25] According to a Pew Survey, 42% of adults believe that deportations will lead to increased food prices.[26] Industries such as construction, agriculture, food processing, and hospitality are particularly in danger, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) has increased raids on workplaces.[27] In Los Angeles, with heavy ICE activity in workplaces, Mayor Karen Bass shared reports of store shelves being empty and many workers not showing up to work.[28]
Only time will tell how the market will react to a drastic decrease in labor. However, based on Pew Research data, many predict that food prices will continue to rise as the farm and food processing workforce in the United States is largely built on migrant workers.[29] Increased tariffs from the current administration have also caused prices of overseas and imported foodstuffs to rise.[30] These factors, paired with price increases across the board, show signs that groceries and foodstuffs will continue to rise.[31] An increasingly scarce workforce does nothing to reduce costs for consumers and suppliers.
[1] Choe Sang-Hun, ‘America Is Not a Safe Place to Work’: Koreans Describe Georgia Raid, N.Y. Times (Sep. 24, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/world/asia/south-korea-georgia-hyundai-ice-raid.html (on file with the American University Business Law Review) (describing the experiences of Korean workers during the raid on their workplace).
[2] Lydia DePillis & Ernesto Londoño, Trump Targets Workplaces as Immigration Crackdown Widens, N.Y. Times (June 10, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/us/trump-immigration-raids-workplaces.html (on file with the American University Business Law Review) (noting an increase in raids of workplaces across the country).
[3] See also id.
[4] See Noem v. Perdomo, No. 25A169, 2025 WL 2585637, at *1, *10, *15 (U.S. Sep. 8, 2025).
[5] No. 25A169, 2025 WL 2585637, at *1 (U.S. Sep. 8, 2025).
[6] Id.
[7] Id. at *9-12.
[8] See id. at *14; Priscilla Alvarez, ICE Has Deported Nearly 200K People Since Trump Returned to Office, On Track for Highest Level in a Decade, CNN (Aug. 28, 2025), https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/28/politics/ice-deportations-immigrants-trump [https://perma.cc/7XC9-YQAS] (noting how many individuals have been deported under the current administration).
[9] Noem, 2025 WL 2585637, at *4
[10] Id. at *12.
[11] Id. at *5 (noting that use of force is not something covered under this Supreme Court order).
[12] Jon McCray Jones, SCOTUS Just Gave ICE a Green Light to Profile Latinos. We Should All Be Outraged, ACLU of Wis. (Sep. 12, 2025), https://www.aclu-wi.org/news/scotus-just-gave-ice-a-green-light-to-profile-latinos-we-should-all-be-outraged/ (on file with the American University Business Law Review) (arguing against racial profiling and encouraging action in response ).
[13] Noem, 2025 WL 2585637, at *11.
[14] Id. at *8.
[15] Jeffrey Kahn & Stephen Wermiel, The Strange Case of the Superfluous Sentence, SCOTUS blog (Sep. 25, 2025, at 08:20 ET), https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/09/the-strange-case-of-the-superfluous-sentence/ [https://perma.cc/5FB4-CNXL] (noting the trends in recent Supreme Court rulings).
[16] Noem, 2025 WL 2585637, at *9 (quoting Reid v. Georgia, 448 U.S. 438, 441 (1980)).
[17] Id. at *5 (Sotomayor, J., dissenting).
[18] Id. at *10.
[19] See id.
[20] Id. at *11, *15.
[21] Id. at *6, *7.
[22] Id.
[23] Jeffrey S. Passel & Jens Manuel Krogstad, U.S. Unauthorized Immigrant Population Reached a Record 14 Million in 2023, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (Aug. 21, 2025), https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2025/08/21/u-s-unauthorized-immigrant-population-reached-a-record-14-million-in-2023/ [https://perma.cc/3J7K-SJS5] (noting the population trends for undocumented individuals in the U.S.).
[24] Cary Funk & Mark Hugo Lopez, A Brief Statistical Portrait of U.S. Hispanics, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (June 14, 2022), https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/06/14/a-brief-statistical-portrait-of-u-s-hispanics/ [https://perma.cc/8YYT-3RYK] (analyzing the trends and statistics of the Hispanic population in the U.S.).
[25] Luis Noe‑Bustamante & John Gramlich, 42 % of U.S. Adults Expect Deportations to Lead to Higher Food Prices in Their Area, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (Apr. 15, 2025), https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/04/15/42-of-us-adults-expect-deportations-to-lead-to-higher-food-prices-in-their-area/ [https://perma.cc/F3QG-V77C] (surveying the American adults and their expectations for prices as a result of increased deportations).
[26] Id.
[27] Nathaniel Meyersohn & Vanessa Yurkevich, America’s Migrant Workers are Terrified to Work but Unable to Stay Home, CNN (June 14, 2025, at 17:48 ET), https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/13/business/ice-workplace-raids-home-depot [https://perma.cc/S8NS-5HW9] (noting the feelings of migrant workers in response to increased deportations).
[28] Id.
[29] Noe‑Bustamante & Gramlich, supra note 25.
[30] Scott Horsley, Grocery Prices Have Jumped. Here’s What’s Driving the Increases, NPR (Sep. 19, 2025, 05:30 ET), https://www.npr.org/2025/09/19/nx-s1-5539547/grocery-prices-tariffs-food-inflation [https://perma.cc/4VPL-CSGP] (noting the reasons for price increases for foodstuffs).
[31] Id.
