Crime & Law
Chicago Advocates Concerned About Racial Profiling After Supreme Court’s Ruling on Immigration Raids
A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision is raising concerns about racial profiling in federal law enforcement as immigration raids ramp up.
But locally, advocates said discriminatory policing is nothing new. They believe the Chicago Police Department has a history of disproportionately targeting Black and Latino people in shootings, traffic stops, arrests and more.
And some advocates worry the high court’s ruling could potentially impact local policing.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court made a move that makes it easier for federal immigration agents to use ethnicity as a factor in deportations. The Supreme Court granted an emergency request from the Trump administration to temporarily halt an order from a Los Angeles judge to stop federal agents from using ethnicity or one’s ability to speak English as a factor when conducting immigration enforcement.
“The Supreme Court’s decision is an extension of the bending of the constitutional rights that we have, searching for loopholes that has been done for years and years,” Loren Jones, director of criminal legal systems at Impact for Equity, said. “This sort of narrows and weakens constitutional rights in the face of policing.”
Raff Donelson, a law and criminology professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, said the ruling shouldn’t change much for how immigration offenses are handled in the city because of local laws preventing cooperation between federal immigration authorities and the police. However, the decision leaves open the possibility for federal, state and local law enforcement to use race as a factor in investigating other crimes not related to immigration.
“If there are some other reasons why state enforcement might think that evidence about ancestry or race is relevant to other crimes not in some immigration-related stuff — the Supreme Court has given its blessing,” Donelson said.
While the court’s decision is not a final ruling, Donelson said it came without a clear reason, which presents some legal uncertainties for lower courts as they try to interpret the high court’s move. He said it also raises questions about what could happen to Black and Latino communities that already experience racial profiling from local law enforcement.
“That creates a lot of confusion for those of us who might face potential action,” Donelson said. “I think there’s a lot of uncertainty especially when we don’t know why the court is acting as it does.”
Jones said that Black and Latino people continue to be disproportionately targeted by police through actions like uses of force and traffic stops despite efforts to combat racial profiling through the consent decree.
“We’ve seen year after year that stops have been targeted focusing on low-level offenses like a broken tail light or headlight or expired registration — these driving offenses that don’t cause public safety issues and are used, in fact, to investigate drivers for unfounded suspicion of criminal conduct because of how they look or what neighborhood they live in,” Jones said.
Jasmine Smith, an organizer with Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, said she’s experienced and witnessed several instances of racial profiling in her community, such as wrongful convictions and pretextual traffic stops.
“They pulled me over — no probable cause — but because they ran my plates and my plates said that I’m concealed carry,” Smith said. “I asked them, ‘What is the reason for you pulling me over?’ ‘Well, it says you’re concealed carry; do you have your gun in your vehicle?’ Immediately, I said, ‘No, but what is your reason for pulling me over? Whether I’m concealed carry or not, that’s not probable cause for you to be pulling me over.’”
According to the Illinois Department of Transportation, Black people made up 45% of traffic stops by CPD in 2024 but account for 31% of Chicago’s population. Latinos made up 35% of all traffic stops by CPD compared to being 29% of the city population. That’s compared to White people making up 15% of stops while being 33% of the population.
Kimberly Marshall served in the police force for 20 years and retired in 2010. Looking back on her experience, she said policing was very different compared to how it is now — especially in regard to how officers were trained to use force.
“I would take one heck of a beating to justify shooting an unarmed person,” Marshall said.
She said that while there was some training around community policing and a strong stance against racial profiling, it didn’t prevent some officers from abusing their power and prejudice. Now, she says the way some shootings and other uses of force are justified contributes to narratives about Black people being inherently dangerous.
“A lot of the defense was, ‘I was scared. He was coming at me,’” Marshall said. “If you’re scared, you need to turn in your badge. You can’t be out there being scared.”
Officer discretion plays a big role in whether police decide to use force, make traffic stops or take other actions. Pushing back against individual cases of racial profiling is difficult because plaintiffs have to prove that the officer was trying to intentionally discriminate.
Advocates like Smith are calling for increased accountability on officers who they say cause harm in Black and Latino communities.
“The police have to come in with being fair and on the side of justice, giving people their due process,” Smith said.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
