SAN DIEGO — I'm calling time of death on colorblindness.

The concept was in style for a minute after the Supreme Court, in 2023, struck down affirmative action in college admissions and said all applicants should be treated equally.

The self-righteous preached that Americans should relate to one another simply as members of one race (the human race) and pay no heed to race, ethnicity or skin color.

Yeah, we're done with that.

This week, that same Supreme Court — in a decision as infamous as Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, in which the justices blessed the concept of "separate but equal" and legalized racial segregation in the United States — legalized racial and ethnic profiling by law enforcement.

In July, U.S. District Court Judge Maame E. Frimpong ordered the Trump administration to halt indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests across Southern California, including Los Angeles County — which has become the national epicenter of Trump's effort to make America white again. Frimpong said there was a "mountain of evidence" that the federal government was violating individuals' Constitutional rights based on skin color and ethnic appearance.

Later, a three-judge appeals court upheld the lower court ruling.

This week, the Supreme Court — by a 6-3 vote along ideological lines — put Frimpong's order on hold and unleashed the Trump administration to carry out raids in Los Angeles based on broad criteria such as having dark skin, speaking Spanish or working as a day laborer.

"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," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in dissent.

I need to understand the new rules. Are Mexican Americans in the Southwest — who have brown skin, speak Spanish (as well as English) or work at a car wash — supposed to carry our "papers" with us wherever we go? And is the reason that we're keeping our passports or birth certificates handy so we don't get accidentally deported by overzealous U.S. immigration agents — or even masked fake agents who like to play dress up but don't like Mexicans?

This is not the new American Southwest. It's the old South Africa.

There ought to be more respect afforded those who are indigenous to a region. America is stuck in a black-and-white paradigm. It always puts Latinos last. But we were here first.

There have been brown-skinned people walking around and speaking Spanish in the Southwest since Santa Fe, New Mexico, was founded back in 1610. The first group of illegal immigrants didn't arrive until 1620. They had a funny name. They were called Pilgrims.

Americans have long counted on the highest court in the land to provide enlightenment. Yet tragically, the current configuration of the Supreme Court is a throwback to the Dark Ages.

Being Mexican American in 2025 means living with the heartbreak that comes from knowing we've been betrayed by the country we love. The deal was that we would work hard, start businesses, employ people and pay lots of taxes. We would also raise good kids who would go to college, get good jobs, marry white people and pay more taxes. And in return, other Americans would stop hating us, fearing us and looking down on us. America would stop treating us as second-class citizens and give us the chance to compete for the same opportunities that were available to others. Now that sacred bargain has been broken.

Ever since the Trump administration invaded Los Angeles on June 6, I've seen more than 100 videos of immigration raids. And, as both a Mexican American and the son of a retired cop, each time I watch one, a little piece of me dies.

In one video, a clan of masked men without warrants or identification are shoving a compliant elderly man with brown skin into what appears to be a family minivan that has been repurposed so that the owner could earn extra money collecting bounties by rounding up migrants. A Mexican American woman who is identified as a U.S. citizen screams at the abductors: "You can't do that! We have rights!"

Are you sure about that, senora?

The six conservatives on the high court have often shown their loyalty to MAGA by ignoring the facts, disregarding the law and letting politics carry the day.

Now here we go again. Travesties like this don't make America great. They make it unrecognizable.

To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Dave Vaill at Unsplash