Garamendi joins representatives Vargas and Soto in leading more than 65 colleagues to demand answers on ICE racial profiling

U.S. Representative John Garamendi joined Representatives Juan Vargas and Darren Soto in leading more than 65 House Democrats in demanding answers from the Trump Administration’s Department of Homeland Security regarding the use of racial profiling in immigration enforcement.

Under the Fourth Amendment, federal agents generally may not stop individuals without reasonable suspicion that they are violating the law. Yet a growing number of reports, particularly from Latino communities, describe people being targeted, harassed and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents solely because of their race.

In July, a federal judge issued an order that stopped ICE from targeting people based on race, language and work.

However, this week the Supreme Court temporarily lifted the order while the case continues. As a result, ICE agents can resume making indiscriminate stops for the time being, underscoring the need for immediate answers and accountability from DHS on the use of racial profiling in immigration enforcement.

“We have been concerned by recent statements and actions undertaken by DHS that seem to indicate that the Department is unlawfully using race as a basis for conducting immigration enforcement operations,” wrote the lawmakers. “A strategy of immigration enforcement that singles out law-abiding people solely because of their race is at odds with our constitution’s commitment to both equality and freedom from unreasonable searches.”

Earlier this year, White House Border Czar Tom Homan stated in an interview that ICE agents “don’t need probable cause” to detain people and can instead rely on “observations … based on their location, their occupation, their physical appearance their actions.”

“These kinds of indiscriminate, race-based detentions cause real harm,” the lawmakers continued. “In June, DHS conducted a worksite raid at a farm in Ventura County, California, where militarized agents violently detained hundreds of people, allegedly including U.S. citizens and those with work visas. As a result of the raid, Jaime Alanis, a farmworker at the farm, fell from a greenhouse and later died due to his injuries. In Los Angeles, ICE snatched Andrea Velez, a U.S. citizen, off the street, and detained her for two days, giving her nothing to drink for 24 hours. A U.S. citizen in Pico Rivera was assaulted and detained by agents in a Walmart parking lot.”

ICE data shows that between January 20 and July 28, 2025, ICE made more than 16,000 street arrests of immigrants with no criminal convictions, charges or removal orders. Over half of these arrests were made between June and July alone, with Latinos accounting for 90% of the arrests, meaning that nearly one in five arrests made by ICE is a Latino with no criminal history.

Click here to read the full letter.