Racial Profiling by ICE Will Have a Marked Impact on Latino Communities
By Gabriel R. Sanchez and Edward D. Vargas
A recent Supreme Court decision allows the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to profile Americans based on perceptions that they look like an immigrant.
The broad scope of this decision raises serious concerns that Latino citizens and long-term residents may face increased targeting, along with adverse effects on their health and well-being.
As our analysis shows, this development compounds a long history of punitive immigration policies and racial profiling affecting Latino Americans.
The broad parameters established for being susceptible to ICE investigations put a large number of Latino citizens in jeopardy of being targeted, despite not being undocumented. For example, with an estimated 75% of Latinos across the country reporting that they can speak Spanish pretty well or very well, a large number of Latino citizens are likely to be questioned due to their potential to be perceived as speaking with an accent. When we asked a national sample of Latino immigrants about the accents in their speech patterns, 22% of Latino naturalized citizens reported that they had been discriminated against in their daily activities for speaking with an accent. Clearly, the use of language as a profiling tactic will lead to Latino citizens being unduly questioned and detained.
Similarly, although it is challenging to determine how race or ethnicity might be perceived as a marker for immigration status, our national survey of Latino immigrants strongly suggests that many Latino citizens will be vulnerable to these criteria. In fact, we asked respondents directly what a white border patrol agent whom they might encounter would assume their race to be, based on their skin color, hairstyle, or facial features. Nearly half (48%) of naturalized Latino citizens reported they would be defined as Latino/Hispanic, and 19% said they would be defined as Mexican. Furthermore, 60% of naturalized citizens reported that their skin color is “medium, dark, or very dark” in our self-reported measure of skin color. These Latino citizens would be highly likely to be targeted under the profiling criteria permitted by the Supreme Court’s ruling.
As we discuss in this post, this decision will have a marked impact on Latino Americans—a community that has long been targeted by punitive immigration policies and, as prior research suggests, has already been harmed by racial profiling tied to immigration enforcement.
We have studied the implications of profiling based on immigration status for some time, employing survey measures to better understand how external perceptions of being foreign-born impact Latino Americans.
Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2025