🚨 They Can Stop You Because You Look Latino: What Noem v. Vasquez-Perdomo Means for Our Communities

Understanding the Implications of Noem v. Vasquez-Perdomo on Racial Profiling and Community Rights

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Los Angeles, Summer 2025. Agents in masks pull up to car washes, Home Depots, day-labor corners, bus stops, even churches. They grab men on their way to work. They twist arms, shove people against fences, throw them in vans. Some of those people show U.S. passports or California IDs—and still get hauled off.

A federal judge blocked those raids on July 11, 2025. Last week, the Supreme Court quietly lifted that block on its “shadow docket.”¹ In a 6-3 decision issued without a majority opinion, the Court let those tactics resume while the case continues. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote separately to say out loud what this really does: *agents may use race, Spanish language, job type, and location as part of their “reasonable suspicion.”*²

If you’re Hispanic in Los Angeles, that means fewer constitutional protections than your white neighbors—for simply existing in public space.

This post is for people who live with that reality: the drywall crews that keep this city standing, the women who clean our buildings overnight, the teens translating for abuela at the market. I’m going to break down what happened, what it means, and what you can do—today—to protect yourself and your people.

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📋 What Just Happened—In Plain Language

The case: Noem v. Vasquez-Perdomo challenges raids where ICE teams detained people for looking Latino, speaking Spanish, standing near day-labor sites, or working in certain jobs. A district judge barred those stops; the Ninth Circuit left the block in place.³

The Supreme Court order: On September 8, 2025, the Court stayed (paused) that block, letting the raids resume while the lawsuit proceeds. No majority opinion; it’s a shadow-docket order.⁴

Kavanaugh’s concurrence: He argued factors like “apparent race or ethnicity,” “speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent,” location, and occupation can be “relevant” to suspicion in immigration stops—exactly the door civil-rights groups say the Constitution was meant to keep shut.⁵

Sotomayor’s dissent (joined by Kagan & Jackson): warns the ruling effectively permits agents to seize “anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and works a low-wage job,” violating core Fourth Amendment protections.⁶

Multiple nonpartisan and advocacy analyses describe the ruling bluntly: the Court greenlit racial profiling by allowing roving patrols to restart on the basis of appearance, language, workplace, and place.⁷

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⚖️ Why This Isn’t “Just About Immigrants”

Two facts the Court’s order ignores:

1. Citizens are being stopped. Plaintiffs include U.S. citizens who were detained even after showing ID. That isn’t hypothetical—it’s in the record.⁸

2. Race-based suspicion punishes everyone who “looks like the profile.” In a city where nearly half of the residents are Latino, using ethnicity and Spanish as “clues” creates massive false positives—and a caste system where some people carry fewer rights on the sidewalk.

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👩‍⚕️ The Women’s Health Emergency Nobody’s Talking About

When immigration raids target women, entire communities lose access to healthcare.

Maternal Health Crisis in Real Time

• Prenatal care abandonment: Women skip appointments when clinics sit near enforcement zones

• Birth complications surge: Untreated gestational diabetes and preeclampsia become deadly

• Domestic violence goes underground: Victims won’t call 911 if it means deportation

Research from Arizona’s SB 1070 showed a 27% drop in prenatal care usage among Latinas after implementation—even among citizens and legal residents.⁹

Women as Family Health Gatekeepers

Women make 80% of family healthcare decisions.¹⁰ When mothers fear detention:

• Children miss vaccinations

• Chronic conditions go untreated

• Mental health crises escalate

The Pregnancy Trap

Pregnant Latinas now face an impossible choice:

• Risk detention seeking prenatal care

• Risk death avoiding medical monitoring

This isn’t theoretical. ICE has arrested women leaving prenatal appointments, in hospital parking lots, even during labor.

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🛡️ What You Can Do Right Now

Know Your Rights

• You have the right to remain silent (yes, even if undocumented)

• You don’t have to open your door unless agents have a warrant signed by a judge

• You can refuse consent to search your car, home, or belongings

• Record everything if you feel safe to do so

Family Safety Planning

1. Power of Attorney: Designate who cares for kids if you’re detained

2. Medical directives: Ensure someone can make healthcare decisions

3. Document storage: Keep copies of IDs, medical records, school documents with a trusted friend

4. Emergency contacts: Program immigration attorney numbers in all phones

Healthcare Access Strategies

• Find safety-net clinics: Federally Qualified Health Centers can’t share info with ICE

• Telehealth options: Many providers offer remote care

• Know emergency exceptions: Hospitals must provide emergency care regardless of status

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📰 The Constitutional Crisis in Plain Sight

The Court’s reasoning would have been unconstitutional just two years ago. In Students for Fair Admissions (2023), this same Court declared the Equal Protection Clause’s “core purpose” was “doing away with all governmentally imposed discrimination based on race.”¹¹

Now? If you’re Latino in Los Angeles, your race is legally “relevant” to whether agents can stop you.

Justice Kavanaugh’s concurrence tries to soften this by calling these “relevant factors” among others. But when those “factors” include how you look and sound, we have a name for that: racial profiling.

The irony cuts deep: The same conservative majority that struck down affirmative action for “discriminating” based on race now permits immigration agents to use race as grounds for detention.

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💪 Community Power in Crisis

History teaches us that when courts fail, communities rise. During the 1950s’ “Operation Wetback,” Latino communities created underground networks for healthcare, education, and mutual aid. We’re building those again.

Resources That Actually Help

Legal Support:

• ACLU Southern California: https://www.aclusocal.org/en/cases/vasquez-perdomo-v-noem ¹²

• CHIRLA Emergency Hotline: (213) 353-1333

• National Immigration Law Center: www.nilc.org

Healthcare Access:

• California Primary Care Association clinic finder: www.cpca.org

• Planned Parenthood (reproductive health regardless of status): www.plannedparenthood.org

• Los Angeles County Department of Public Health: publichealth.lacounty.gov ¹³

Family Support:

• Family Preparedness Plan (English/Spanish): www.ilrc.org/family-preparedness-plan

• Know Your Rights cards: www.ilrc.org/red-cards

Para Recursos en Español

• Línea directa de CHIRLA: (213) 353-1333

• Unidos US recursos familiares: www.unidosus.org

• La Opinión guías legales: www.laopinion.com/temas/inmigracion

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🔮 What Happens Next

The case returns to the Ninth Circuit, but raids continue. The administration seeks 3,000 daily arrests nationwide.¹⁴ Los Angeles remains ground zero.

Three scenarios ahead:

1. Ninth Circuit rules broadly: Could restore injunction with stronger reasoning

2. Supreme Court takes full case: Final ruling could cement or reverse racial profiling

3. Political pressure builds: Mass mobilization historically shifts enforcement priorities

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✊ The Truth They Don’t Want You to Know

This ruling affects everyone who “looks” Latino—citizens, residents, visitors. It creates a two-tier system where your appearance determines your rights. That’s not immigration enforcement. That’s apartheid.

But here’s what power never understands: We’ve survived worse. Our abuelas faced Operation Wetback. Our parents navigated Proposition 187. Each generation thinks they’ll break us. Each generation learns—we don’t break.

We organize. We protect each other. We vote. And eventually, we win.

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References

¹ Noem v. Vasquez-Perdomo, No. 25A169 (U.S. Sept. 8, 2025) (order granting stay).

² Id. (Kavanaugh, J., concurring) (listing “apparent race or ethnicity,” “speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent,” location, and occupation as “relevant factor[s]”).

³ Vasquez-Perdomo v. Noem, No. 25-cv-04852 (C.D. Cal. July 11, 2025) (granting preliminary injunction); Vasquez-Perdomo v. Noem, No. 25-16543 (9th Cir. Aug. 15, 2025) (denying stay pending appeal).

⁴ Noem, No. 25A169 (shadow docket order without majority opinion).

⁵ Id. (Kavanaugh, J., concurring).

⁶ Id. (Sotomayor, J., dissenting).

⁷ ACLU of Southern California, Supreme Court Greenlights Racial Profiling in Immigration Enforcement (Sept. 9, 2025); National Immigration Law Center, Analysis of Noem v. Vasquez-Perdomo Stay Order (Sept. 10, 2025).

⁸ Vasquez-Perdomo, No. 25-cv-04852, Declaration of Maria Gonzalez (U.S. citizen detained for four hours despite presenting California driver’s license).

⁹ Toomey, R.B., et al., Impact of Arizona’s SB 1070 Immigration Law on Utilization of Health Care and Public Assistance Among Mexican-Origin Adolescent Mothers and Their Mother Figures, 104 Am. J. Public Health 28 (2014).

¹⁰ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Women as Health Care Decision-Makers, https://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts-and-features/fact-sheets/women-healthcare-decision-makers/index.html

¹¹ Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard, 600 U.S. 181, 206 (2023).

¹² ACLU Southern California case tracking and resources.

¹³ Los Angeles County Department of Public Health community resources.

¹⁴ E. Findell et al., The White House Marching Orders That Sparked the L.A. Migrant Crackdown, Wall St. J. (June 9, 2025).