Dear Police Reform Project Subscribers, In our October newsletter we spoke about racial profiling in the context of immigration, and its connection to the work we are doing on traffic stops. Last month, The Atlantic Magazine published an article that echoes our concerns. The article, titled “The Court Case That is Allowing ICE to Stop Just About Anyone It Wants,” discusses the history of pretext stops following the 1996 Supreme Court decision in Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806 (1996) [1]. It goes on to note the fallacy in the premises the Court relied on in the Whren decision, and how that decision is weaponized against immigrants and citizens in ICE enforcement. The confluence of Whren and ICE is easily captured anecdotally. In Washington, D.C., for example, the U.S. Park Police (a federal police agency) is responsible for enforcing traffic laws on Rock Creek Parkway, a piece of federal land. Since the ICE crackdown began, the park police have begun pulling over commercial trucks for technical violations—say, obscured license plates or driving on the noncommercial parkways— and then allowing ICE to arrest those suspected of immigration violations. To the same effect in D.C., delivery drivers are at risk of being stopped for traffic violations and then being sucked into the immigration-enforcement machine. It's not just D.C.; the crackdown is nationwide. ICE detention centers start with minor traffic violations in Phoenix. In Florida, they begin at truck inspection checkpoints. Or, in Montana, with a broken taillight. Unsurprisingly, the traffic crackdown is not race neutral. In South Florida, for example, ICE is targeting specific specific types of work trucks typically driven by people of color. While these stops are lawful under Whren, many of these stops would become unlawful under the SAFTE Act, S3662A/A6631. As ICE continues to concentrate enforcement in communities of color, consistent with recent Supreme Court of the United States precedent, including Noem v. Perdomo Vasquez (2025), it is essential that states act where they can reduce racial disparities. Why would this statute help? Because ICE is using these low-level, non-safety stops, usually in partnership with local law enforcement, to stop and detain people without probable cause. But if there is a bill barring such stops, local law enforcement and ICE would be prevented from using these stops as part of ICE enforcement. The Atlantic Article continues: Whren’s logic has always been a formula for abuse, but that abuse has come especially to the fore today, when acted on by ICE agents who, far from investigating federal crimes, are deploying their authority in the service of noncriminal immigration enforcement to satisfy Trump’s deportation quota. Without any actual knowledge that a crime may have been committed, ICE officers can convert an everyday occurrence that almost every person in America does routinely (rolling through a stop sign, say) into the pretext for arrest that can lead to banishment. As we enter the 2026 legislative year, we encourage you to join our coalition, and support our efforts to support the SAFTE Act. To join our coalition, email Jill with the button below. Sincerely, Jill Paperno Katie Blum |
