Overview
- In a December concurrence tied to blocking the National Guard’s deployment to Illinois, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that officers must not make interior immigration stops or arrests based on race or ethnicity.
- The statement contrasts with his September opinion asserting that a person’s apparent ethnicity could be a relevant factor in immigration stops, a formulation that sparked the shorthand “Kavanaugh stops” coined by law professor Anil Kalhan.
- Reports and legal filings describe ICE and CBP using the earlier language to justify stopping Hispanic people, with accounts of forceful, prolonged detentions that in some cases ensnared U.S. citizens and lawful residents.
- CBP Chief Greg Bovino has been reported to embrace aggressive profiling claims and to suggest people should carry proof of citizenship, drawing criticism from legal commentators.
- Analysts including Dahlia Lithwick, Mark Joseph Stern, and Reason’s coverage describe the footnote as a belated and insufficient walk-back that lacks an acknowledgment of error and is unlikely to change on-the-ground practices quickly.