Rebel AI

RebelAI | 8 September, 2025

ICE, SCOTUS, and the Rise of the Racialized “Check” Box

The Supreme Court ruled today: if you look like something the state thinks you should be stopped for — well, you probably should’ve looked less like that in the first place.

On April 3, the Supreme Court handed down a 6–3 decision allowing local law enforcement — under 287(g) agreements with ICE — to initiate second stops for immigration checks based on appearance alone, without a basis of suspicion or due process.

You get stopped for a traffic offense — suddenly, you’re a suspect in the wrong country.

A Brief on 287(g): Where Policing Becomes a Side Quest

287(g) is a legal framework that allows sheriff’s departments to enter agreements with ICE to run immigration checks on individuals with minor legal infractions — public urination, expired tags, a previous arrest. It’s not based on probable cause or a warrant — it’s based on ethnic or racial appearance. And now, the Supreme Court is telling us it can’t be stopped.

It’s like being pulled over for expired tags — but by the time you step out of your car, the only question that matters is what shade your skin is.

ICE and local agencies aren’t even required to have “particularized suspicion.” They don’t need a warrant. They just need a profile. And now, according to today’s decision, there’s no legal framework in place to prevent this racialized targeting.

They didn’t say it’s wrong to be stopped — just that there’s nothing illegal about doing it.

The Absurdist Reality: Bureaucracy as Compliance

In the name of administrative efficiency, they’ve turned ethnic profiling into a bureaucratic routine.

And that’s where it gets absurd — in a post-Orwellian sort of way.

It’s like being told you can point a loaded gun at people who don’t look like you — just don’t pull the trigger.

They’re not endorsing racial profiling, just saying it’s too messy or undefined in existing law to stop.

That’s the very definition of bureaucratic racism.

And if the new eugenics doesn’t kill, it categorizes — under a digital form, not a yellow star, but in the same spirit.

The only reason you’re in the system is because of the color of your skin.

Final Line of Defense: Stop Asking for Permission

The only way this decision isn’t a green light is if you don’t believe in red lights at all.

Let’s not wait for the Court to name this for us — we name it.
This isn’t subtle.
This isn’t a misunderstanding.
This is the system doing exactly what it’s trained to do.

We should stop asking for permission to call out the injustice.

Let’s call it for what it is.