Kavanaugh began by accepting the government’s claim that one in 10 residents of LA is an undocumented immigrant.
There is no citation for this figure, and there’s some evidence that it’s wildly inaccurate.
But it undergirds Kavanaugh’s entire legal theory, so he wasn’t about to factcheck it!
“Not surprisingly given those extraordinary numbers,
US immigration officers have prioritized immigration enforcement in the Los Angeles area,”
he went on, noting
“the myriad ‘significant economic and social problems’ caused by illegal immigration.”
That internal quote about immigrants causing “significant economic and social problems”
is actually dicta from Brignoni-Ponce,
a decision which is five decades old.
Recent data proves that immigrants greatly strengthen the US economy
and commit crimes at significantly lower ratesthan native-born Americans
— which is why only blood and soil nationalists say that stuff today.
And while Kavanaugh was happy to cherrypick quotes from Brignoni-Ponce,
he wildly mischaracterized its holding.
There, the Court ruled that race plus location could NOT add up to reasonable suspicion because it would necessarily sweep up lots of people who were entirely innocent
— the exact opposite of Kavanaugh’s conclusion,
even with his demographic fudge to make it seem like every brown person ICE encounters in LA is likely to be an undocumented immigrant
Brett Kavanaugh explains that SCOTUS really IS doing racism
He showed his whole hood.
