San Diego officials respond to recent Supreme Court decision on immigration enforcement 

SAN DIEGO (FOX5/KUSI) — Local elected officials are raising questions of constitutionality over a recent Supreme Court decision on immigration stops released on Monday. 

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court lifted limits which stopped immigration officers from suspecting people of being undocumented based on their apparent race, type of job or if they spoke Spanish. 

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the decision that the limit had overstepped on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) ability to fulfill their operations.  

“The prospect of such after-the-fact judicial second-guessing and contempt proceedings will inevitably chill lawful immigration enforcement efforts,” Kavanaugh said.  

This answer was not enough for some. San Diego Representative Juan Vargas (CA-52) alongside Florida Representative Darren Soto (FL-09) led a joint letter with more than 65 colleagues to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Wednesday. 

Vargas expressed concern that ICE agents may racially profile people in their operations, violating the Fourteenth Amendment.  

“We have been concerned by recent statements and actions undertaken by DHS that seem to indicate that the Department is unlawfully using race as a basis for conducting immigration enforcement operations,” the letter stated.  

The leaders asked nine questions directed to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, asking about ICE procedures and goals.  

“These kinds of indiscriminate, race-based detentions cause real harm,” the representatives wrote. 

San Diego City Councilmember Raul Campillo (D-7) also spoke out against the court’s decision during Tuesday’s City Council meeting.  

“The Supreme Court’s decision is a betrayal of the Constitution’s most basic promise: that every person will be judged by their actions, not their appearance,” Campillo said in an 11-minute speech before the council.  

Campillo discussed his identity as a Mexican-American, stating that the Supreme Court “decided I should be detained if I don’t look like I’m in the right place.” 

“I have to ask the justices who think this is okay,” Campillo said. “How dusty do my pants need to be before I look like an undocumented laborer? What if I switched from dress shoes to work boots? What if my Spanglish is good enough to sound fluent?” 

The councilmember said the United States should not be a “republic of suspicion” but instead a “republic of laws.” He said liberty shouldn’t be conditional.  

“A government that labels criminal suspicion of the darker set of our citizenry as ‘Common Sense’ is a government that doesn’t have common sense but instead has lost all sense of right and wrong,’ Campillo said. “And it has no sense of what the Constitution guarantees each and every one of us.”