On Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor delivered a pointed critique of fellow justice Brett Kavanaugh during a speech at the University of Kansas School of Law, arguing his immigration enforcement approach lacks understanding of working-class Americans’ realities.
Speaking Tuesday at the university, Sotomayor revisited Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion from last year that expanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authority in Los Angeles under the Trump administration. In that decision, Kavanaugh maintained that immigration stops are “typically brief” and most migrants “promptly go free.”
According to Bloomberg Law, Sotomayor—a member of the court’s liberal wing—challenged this view by questioning whether Kavanaugh grasps the tangible consequences such detentions inflict on hourly workers. “I had a colleague in that case who wrote, you know, these are only temporary stops,” Sotomayor said, referring to Kavanaugh, who was absent. “This is from a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour.”
She emphasized that even brief encounters with law enforcement can disrupt financial stability for those struggling to make ends meet: “Those hours that they took you away, nobody’s paying that person. And that makes a difference between a meal for him and his kids that night and maybe just cold supper.”
Kavanaugh’s opinion, issued in September, authorized ICE to continue enforcement operations in Los Angeles, including targeting individuals based on broad indicators like occupation and language. In his writing, Kavanaugh stated: “Immigration stops based on reasonable suspicion of illegal presence have been an important component of US immigration enforcement for decades, across several presidential administrations.”
At the time, Sotomayor and two other liberal justices issued a dissent warning against potential overreach, noting: “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.”
Kavanaugh recently reiterated support for the Trump administration’s position that metering—a practice limiting asylum applications by immigration officials—should remain part of future enforcement strategies. While the policy was used during President Trump’s first term and is currently inactive, the Justice Department seeks to overturn a lower-court decision blocking it. Kavanaugh questioned: “Why would Congress privilege someone who illegally enters the United States?”
