In summary
In January, immigration sweeps shook the Central Valley. A new lawsuit says the raids unlawfully targeted people of color regardless of their immigration status.
Border Patrol agents slashed tires, yanked people out of trucks, threw people to the ground, and called farmworkers “Mexican bitches” during unannounced raids in Kern County in early January, according to a complaint filed today by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The civil liberties organization on Wednesday filed the lawsuit in federal court, saying the operation unlawfully targeted “people of color who appeared to be farm workers or day laborers, regardless of their actual immigration status or individual circumstances.” The raids, it said, violated Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure, including through arrests without probable cause and stops without reasonable suspicion.
The Border Patrol did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The nearly weeklong sweep in January throughout Bakersfield’s predominantly Latino neighborhoods was the first large-scale operation in California after President Donald Trump’s election, although it occurred before he assumed office. Trump has vowed to deport millions in the “largest deportation program” in U.S. history.
Since taking office, his administration has, according to news reports, flown Venezuelan migrants to Guantanamo Bay, lifted restrictions on immigration agents arresting people in schools, hospitals and churches, and deported Asian asylum seekers to Panama and Costa Rica, where many were sent onward to facilities in the jungles of the Darién Gap.
In early January, Border Patrol agents based at the United States-Mexico border traveled north more than 300 miles to Bakersfield to conduct immigration sweeps. Gregory K. Bovino, the Border Patrol chief in El Centro, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, dubbed it “Operation Return to Sender.”
“We are taking it to the bad people and bad things in Bakersfield,” Bovino said on social media. “We are planning operations for other locals (sic) such as Fresno and especially Sacramento.”
People who witnessed the sweeps previously told CalMatters it appeared agents in Kern County were stopping farmworkers and day laborers at random, profiling them based on their looks, and asking for their papers. The Fourth Amendment prevents Border Patrol agents from detaining people without reasonable suspicion the person is in the country unlawfully. A person’s perceived race, ethnic background, or occupation cannot justify detaining a person, the ACLU says in the lawsuit filed in the Fresno division of the Eastern District of California.
The raids caused panic and confusion in the community and had a chilling effect on local business, causing workers to stay away from the fields during the raids, according to Antonio De Loera-Brust, director of communication for the union United Farm Workers, and others. UFW is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Growers and agricultural leaders in California have warned that Trump’s promised mass deportations will disrupt the nation’s food supply, leading to shortages and higher prices.
California provides over a third of the country’s vegetables and nearly three-quarters of its fruits and nuts.
Border Patrol agents initially swept up about 200 people in the “unlawful dragnet,” according to the ACLU’s complaint. The agency announced at the time its officers made 78 arrests during the sweeps. Of those, at least 40 were sent to Mexico after being pressured to accept voluntary departure, according to the ACLU. According to the complaint, most had lived in the United States for years and left behind families, communities, homes, and livelihoods.
Agents approached one man, a 38-year-old licensed handyman, while he was standing outside a Home Depot with a group of day laborers on Jan. 7. When he tried to walk away, an officer followed him, handcuffed him, and arrested him, according to the complaint. The man had lived in Bakersfield for 12 years, the complaint said.
The next morning, Border Patrol pulled over a man who works as a gardener and was hauling a trailer full of gardening equipment. When the man declined to surrender his truck keys, the agent slashed his tires, according to the ACLU. The man is a U.S. citizen.
When his passenger did not immediately open his door, an agent threatened to break the window. When the passenger did lower the window and opened the door, the agent dragged him from the truck, according to the complaint.
That afternoon, agents pulled over a woman for no apparent reason. She showed the agents her valid California driver’s license, but they ordered her out of the car, threw her to the ground, and arrested her, according to the ACLU’s complaint. She is a lawful permanent resident of the United States.
While driving home after a day of working in the fields, a man who had lived in Kern County for 20 years was stopped and arrested. Agents called him and his passenger “Mexican bitches.” When he told agents he had four small children, the agent responded that he didn’t care and that he would be “going to Mexico” anyway, the complaint states.
Agents then took the people they arrested to the El Centro Border Patrol Station, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, where they were held in frigid cold holding cells known as hieleras. They were not granted access to sleeping quarters, showers, hygiene products, or sufficient food, according to the ACLU. The people were not allowed phone calls to lawyers and family members. Agents pressured them to sign “voluntary departure” forms, allowing them to be expelled to Mexico.
Voluntary departure is a process that certain people can qualify for to be sent back to their home countries without having the long-term consequences of having a deportation on their record.
Several are now in Mexicali in Mexico, just south of Calexico, separated from their families, homes, and communities. “They do not know when they will see their families again,” the complaint says.