U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego addressed the NALEO 43rd Annual Conference in Los Angeles on July 16, warning that Latino working-class men face racial profiling and targeting by federal immigration enforcement agents in the streets of the country. Gallego told the gathering of Latino elected officials that the community has endured a difficult year marked by intensified enforcement tactics he characterized as discriminatory.
“We have been targeted. They’re racially profiling us. They’re hunting Latino working class men in the streets of our country right now,” Gallego said in remarks at the conference. “But we know one thing: Latinos are tough. We have dealt with the hardest. We will deal with the hardest. And we will always come up on top because we are not afraid to push back.”
Gallego’s remarks come less than three months after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in September 2025 cleared the way for federal immigration agents to use race, language, and other factors when deciding whether to detain individuals. In the case Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, Justice Brett Kavanaugh emphasized that factors such as speaking Spanish or English with an accent, working in construction or agriculture, and location could serve as reasonable suspicion for immigration stops. Critics and civil rights advocates have said the ruling effectively legalized racial profiling in immigration enforcement.
Gallego directly referenced the Supreme Court’s approval of these enforcement tactics during his speech. “Justice Kavanaugh wrote that it’s okay to racially profile if you speak Spanish. If speaking English with an accent is also okay, or working on a construction site, landscaping or agriculture. All according to our Supreme Court are reasonable suspicions that you do not belong here,” he said.
The senator cited recent fatal incidents as evidence of the consequences of such policies. On July 13, 2026, Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian national, was shot and killed by ICE agents in Biddeford, Maine, during an immigration enforcement operation. According to reporting, Guerrero’s father stated his son had legal status and was working two jobs. The incident marked the second fatal shooting by federal immigration agents in less than a week, following another shooting in Houston the previous week.
Gallego framed the issue as one of dignity and patriotism. “Standing up for our dignity, demanding economic fairness, and protecting our families is not in opposition to America. It is the most American thing we could be doing,” he told the conference. He emphasized that Latino contributions to the country—from military service to entrepreneurship—demonstrate deep commitment to the nation, and that the community should not be made to live in fear.
Sources
- U.S. Senate Website — Senator Gallego’s press release and full remarks from the NALEO conference, including direct quotes on racial profiling and the Supreme Court ruling
- The New York Times — Reporting on Joan Sebastian Guerrero’s death in Maine and confirmation of his legal status
- SCOTUSblog — Documentation of the Supreme Court’s September 2025 decision in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo and Justice Kavanaugh’s language on racial profiling factors
- American Immigration Council — Analysis of how the Supreme Court decision cleared the way for racial profiling in immigration enforcement
