The American Civil Liberties Union says in a new federal lawsuit that Border Patrol agents in the Central Valley appeared to arrest people without reasonable suspicion, based on their appearance.

Wendy Fry

CalMatters

Sergio Olmos

CalMatters

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.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol, wrote that “Border Patrol enforcement actions are highly targeted” and that “When we discover any alleged or potential misconduct, we immediately refer it for investigation and cooperate fully with any criminal or administrative investigations.”

Trump’s Deportation Promises and Recent Immigration Actions

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.”

Related Story: Judge Blocks Trump’s Immigration Policy Allowing Church Arrests

“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.”

Allegations of Racial Profiling and Constitutional Violations

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.

“Farm workers, and all our neighbors in Kern County, should have the right to move, work, and live free from fear,” said UFW President Teresa Romero.

California provides over a third of the country’s vegetables and nearly three-quarters of its fruits and nuts.

The DHS spokesperson wrote: “Businesses that human traffic and exploit migrants for cheap labor should be afraid — we will go after them. As for law-abiding companies, the media is intentionally manufacturing fear… If there was any correlation between rampant illegal immigration and a good economy, [former President Joe] Biden would have had a booming economy.”

During the Biden administration, the U.S. gross domestic product grew an inflation-adjusted 3.2% a year on average, outpacing the 2.8% annual growth during the strongest part of predecessor Trump’s first term, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an examination of the two presidencies by The Wall Street Journal. But inflation was also considerably worse under Biden, at nearly 20% over the course of his term, versus 8% for Trump.

Detailed Accounts of Alleged Abuses During Raids

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.

Related Story: Trump Expands Immigration Enforcement Across Nearly Every Major Department

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.

Detention Conditions and Pressure for Voluntary Departure

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 facing the more severe long-term consequences of having a deportation on their record. Still, voluntary departures can carry some penalties, including a three- or ten-year period of “inadmissibility” for reentry to the United States.

Several people taken during the raids 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.

About the Authors

Wendy Fry is an Emmy-winning multimedia investigative journalist who reports on poverty and inequality for the California Divide team.

Sergio is an investigative reporter for CalMatters. He previously worked as a freelance reporter for The New York Times, NPR, Oregon Public Broadcasting and The Guardian, among others, reporting from here in the U.S. and the war in Ukraine.

About CalMatters

CalMatters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom committed to explaining California policy and politics.