Supreme Court Lets Immigration Agents Resume Roving Stops in Los Angeles

On September 8, 2025, the Supreme Court granted the administration's application in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, staying a district court order that had restricted immigration stops in the Los Angeles area. The July 11 order from the Central District of California had barred agents from stopping people without reasonable suspicion and from relying on four factors: apparent race or ethnicity, speaking Spanish or accented English, presence at locations such as bus stops, car washes or agricultural sites, and the type of work a person does. The stay lets the government resume the challenged practices pending the Ninth Circuit appeal. Justice Kavanaugh concurred; Justice Sotomayor dissented, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson.

The order came on the Court's emergency docket without full briefing or argument, and it touches a central constitutional question in immigration enforcement: what an officer may treat as reasonable suspicion in a street stop. Because the stay operates while the appeal proceeds, its practical effect is to permit the contested enforcement pattern to continue for the length of the litigation rather than to resolve its lawfulness.

The case continued below, with the district court set to weigh a preliminary injunction on a fuller record later in September. The Supreme Court decided no merits question.