Washington DC - Immigration agents can, for now, continue roving patrols in Los Angeles to detain migrants indiscriminately, the Supreme Court ruled Monday as it upheld a practice that has been slammed as racial profiling.

The court announced the decision in an unsigned order that gave no reasons. Its three liberal members dissented. The case remains alive, however, in lower courts and could again end up before the highest court.

The court granted a suspension of a federal court's ruling in July that ordered a halt to roving patrols carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of President Donald Trump's plan to deport hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants.

Donald Trump Trump touts "incredible" vaccines in break with anti-vaxxer RFK Jr.: "They work!"

Pete Hegseth Hegseth gives bizarre speech after becoming Secretary of War: "We're going to go on offense"

In these operations, agents sometimes wearing masks summarily round up people at places where immigrants tend to gather like parks or work low-wage jobs, such as car washes.

Critics say the agents make random arrests based on people's skin color and the language they speak, very often Latinos speaking Spanish.

In one high-profile case last month, ICE agents grabbed more than a dozen people outside a Los Angeles Home Depot in a "Trojan Horse" raid, despite the court order.

Agents sprang from the back of a rented moving truck in an episode filmed by embedded journalists from Fox News.

Last month, a three-judge panel denied a government appeal to overturn the judge's original order, after rights groups argued that the raids appeared to be arresting people largely based on their race.

While the Supreme Court did not state reasons for its decision, one of the conservative justices, Brett Kavanaugh, wrote a concurring opinion in which he said "illegal immigration is especially pronounced in the Los Angeles area."

One of the three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina named to the court, dissented.

"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," she wrote.

Migration Seoul says hundreds of South Koreans arrested in ICE Georgia battery plant raid

Marjorie Taylor Greene Marjorie Taylor Greene "shocked" by GOP peers opposing Epstein files release: "The truth needs to come out"

"The Constitution does not permit the creation of such a second-class citizenship status."

Aggressive ICE raids around Los Angeles in early June sparked two weeks of unrest in the city, which is home to millions of migrants.

In response to the largely peaceful protests, Trump sent more than 4,700 troops to the city, despite objections from local politicians and law enforcement.