by Melanie J. Prasad
Last week, we spoke out against the brutal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid at the Hyundai and LG battery plant in Georgia—a devastating act that ripped nearly 500 workers from their jobs, families, and communities. These workers were building the “clean energy future,” only to be discarded through militarized enforcement tactics rooted in fear, racial profiling, and exploitation.
That same day, the Supreme Court issued a devastating decision that threatens the rights, safety, and dignity of immigrant communities by allowing ICE agents in Los Angeles to resume detentive stops based on racial stereotypes. This ruling endorses racial profiling and sanctions the harassment of our community members based on nothing more than the color of their skin, the language they speak, or the jobs they do. This is not just a legal setback. It is a profound betrayal of constitutional rights and human dignity.
As Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent:
“The Government, and now the concurrence, has all but declared that all Latinos, U.S. citizens or not, who work low wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time, taken away from work, and held until they provide proof of their legal status to the agents’ satisfaction.”
Let us be clear: this is a coordinated attack on immigrant and working-class communities. It deepens systemic harm, spreads fear in our neighborhoods, and sends a chilling message to workers who dare to demand dignity. It is an assault on all communities fighting for a future rooted in equity.
This is not a matter of legal theory. It is about the lives of working people in communities where the consequences of this decision will be felt immediately and brutally. Justice Sotomayor made this plain:
“It is the people of Los Angeles and the Central District who will suffer from this Court’s grant of relief to the Government. Immigration agents are not conducting ‘brief stops for questioning’… They are seizing people using firearms, physical violence, and warehouse detentions.”
This is state violence, plain and simple.
At Jobs to Move America, we reject this ruling and the broader agenda that treats immigrant workers as disposable. We know that safety is not created by militarized raids or fear-driven policies. Safety comes from investing in people, respecting workers, and protecting the dignity of every community member. Public funds must serve the public good, not fuel systems of fear, violence, and exclusion.
JMA’s work is grounded in the belief that a just economy is a safe economy. No worker should live in fear of arrest on the job. No community should be punished for demanding rights and respect. We fight for an economy and a democracy where immigrant lives are not criminalized, but celebrated, protected, and empowered.
This moment demands more than outrage. It demands organized, unapologetic resistance. We refuse to normalize a world where armed agents terrorize our workplaces and communities. This is not law and order. It is violence disguised as policy.
The promise of justice is not handed down by courts. It is built by movements. And in the face of fear, we organize. We resist. We reimagine. And we remain steadfast in our vision of a world where public dollars build community, not cages.
Justice Sotomayor said it best:
“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job. Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”
And we do too.