Supreme Court Decision Impacts the Use of Race in Immigration Stops

Transcript

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HOST: You're listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a daily newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota.

ANCHOR: In today’s stories, a new report accuses a Minnesota company of dumping electronic hazardous waste overseas. Then, how a Supreme Court decision can affect individual rights for some Minnesotans, and a new bill could expand border patrol access in the Boundary Waters.

I'm Gracie J.

A new investigation accuses electronics retailer Best Buy of exporting hazardous electronic waste, or e-waste, overseas under the guise of recycling. The Basel Action Network's "Brokers of Shame" report tracked more than 10,000 U.S. shipping containers of discarded electronics. The report suggests Best Buy's recycling program may funnel electronics through brokers that export waste illegally or irresponsibly. Lawmakers are calling for full transparency, audits, and stronger oversight.

Next, a recent Supreme Court decision allowing federal agents to use race for immigration stops has many concerned about racial profiling and individual's rights. Jose Ozoria examines how this ruling affects Minnesotans.

Keith Ellison: Justice Sotomayor has raised her voice in this case with precision, force and conviction. Her words, “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,” will echo long after this ruling, unless we do more than remember them.

Jose Ozoria: That is Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison praising US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s strong dissenting opinion on a recent ruling by the court.

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Jose Ozoria: The Supreme Court ruling contradicts an earlier decision by a federal judge that ruled that the Department of Homeland Security targeted individuals unlawfully using racial profiling during Los Angeles area immigration raids, likely violating the Fourth Amendment. Jeremy Robbins, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council, describes the troubling ramifications associated with the Supreme Court's action.

Jeremy Robbins: Whether you're a US citizen, an immigrant who is here legally, whether you're undocumented, if you speak with an accent or are speaking Spanish, if you are near a place like a construction site or places where immigrants disproportionately work, you would be stopped to verify your legal status.

Jose Ozoria: Mr. Robbins points out that it's not only the court's ruling that has people concerned, but how the ruling took place, raising questions about transparency and how the law is being used.

Jeremy Robbins: It was the rarest of occasions when the Supreme Court would use the emergency docket. All of a sudden. What was a unique and rare situation of using the emergency docket without letting court cases get fully heard has become much more normalized.

Shauna Kieffer: You want to have reasonable suspicion that there's a crime and your mere existence can't be that suspicion alone.

Jose Ozoria: Shauna Kieffer is a Minnesota defense attorney.

Shauna Kieffer: That's what's really raising the spidey sense on the criminal defense community and anyone that's a constitutional scholar.

Jose Ozoria: Ms. Kieffer says that when it comes to Minnesota, the state has historically worked to fortify the rights that protect citizens under the Fourth Amendment.

Shauna Kieffer: So states are allowed to expand constitutional protections. They're not allowed to take away. So you can't make your constitution less protective, but you can cover more things, and Minnesota has done that, and we've done that post-George Floyd, and before George Floyd.

Jose Ozoria: We still don't fully know how the ruling will impact Minnesotans, since the state hasn't had the same presence of federal forces this year as other areas. However, Ms. Kieffer believes the state is in a better place overall when it comes to interactions with law enforcement.

Shauna Kieffer: Minnesota has consistently protected our citizens to a greater extent than even other states. We're in a little bit different situation as to how this would apply.

Jose Ozoria: During a press conference, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem asserted her department's position.

Kristi Noem: We have all the right in the world to go out on the streets and to uphold the law and to do what we're going to do, so none of our operations are going to change.

Jose Ozoria: For North Star Stories, I’m Jose Ozoria.

Anchor: listening to North Star Stories.

A proposal in Congress could reshape how the U.S.–Canada border is patrolled near Minnesota's Boundary Waters. The Border Lands Conservation Act would allow Homeland Security to build roads, fences, and surveillance systems within 100 miles of the border. Supporters of the bill say it strengthens national security, but wilderness advocates warn it would undo decades of environmental protection and change how visitors experience the area.

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HOST: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at ampers dot org.