OPINION: A statement against racial profiling: This is not who we are

As a proud Chicana whose father fought fascism in World War II, I am compelled to speak out against the Supreme Court’s unconscionable decision to allow ICE agents to stop and question people based on their ethnicity, accent, language and workplace. This ruling is a betrayal of everything our nation claims to stand for and everything our ancestors fought to achieve.

My father, like countless veterans, risked his life fighting dictators and fascist regimes that targeted people based on who they were, what they looked like and where they came from. He fought for a vision of America where freedom and dignity were not privileges reserved for some, but rights guaranteed to all. The U.S. Supreme Court majority turned their backs on that vision and dishonored the sacrifice of every person who has ever fought for liberty and justice.

This decision is not just wrong, it is un-American. When Justice Brett Kavanaugh writes that certain workplaces like agriculture and construction are “especially attractive to illegal immigrants,” he is essentially giving government agents permission to target brown and Black workers simply for doing the jobs that keep our communities and economy functioning.

This is exactly the kind of systematic oppression that the Civil Rights movement fought to dismantle. Our leaders, from César Chávez to Dolores Huerta, from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to countless unnamed heroes, did not march, organize and sacrifice so that decades later we would return to an era where people are stopped on the street for speaking Spanish or working in the fields.

Mi gente across this state and across the nation contribute immeasurably to our communities. We pay taxes, we build homes, we grow food, we care for children and elders, we serve in the military, we teach, we heal, we create. Our cultures enrich this nation. Our work sustains it. Our families have deep roots here, many stretching back generations before statehood, before borders were even drawn.

Yet now, the highest court in the land has decided that being brown, speaking Spanish, or working in agriculture or construction makes us inherently suspicious. It has decided that entire communities should live in fear of being stopped, questioned, detained and separated from our families simply because of who we are.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor got it right in her dissent: This ruling “improperly shifts the burden onto an entire class of citizens to carry enough documentation to prove that they deserve to walk freely.” It creates a two-tiered system of citizenship where some Americans must constantly prove their right to exist in their own country.

As someone whose family has sacrificed and served this nation, I refuse to accept that any community should be treated as second-class citizens. I refuse to accept that our children should grow up in fear, wondering if they need papers to prove they belong in their own country. When any group can be targeted for who they are, none of us are free.

The Supreme Court may have failed us, but the fight for justice continues. My father’s generation defeated fascism abroad. Now it’s our turn to defeat it at home, through the ballot box, through the courts, through communities that stand together rather than allow themselves to be divided by hate and fear. Our voices matter, our votes count and our dignity is non-negotiable.

Racial profiling has no place in America. We are better than this ruling. We must be better than this ruling.