Rebecca Plevin, Los Angeles Times
ACLU attorneys representing the United Farm Workers and five Kern
County, California, residents have sued the head of the Department of
Homeland Security and U.S. Border Patrol officials, alleging the Border
Patrol's three-day raid in the southern San Joaquin Valley in early
January amounted to a "fishing expedition" that indiscriminately
targeted people of color who appeared to be farmworkers or day laborers.
The complaint, filed Wednesday in federal court in the Eastern District
of California, alleges that agents from the Border Patrol's El Centro
sector violated protections afforded by federal law and the U.S.
Constitution when they rounded up and deported scores of laborers in the
country without legal authorization. It seeks class-action relief for
everyone subjected to the tactics, which the lawsuit describes as
"lawless sweeps, indiscriminate arrests, and coercive expulsions."
"It's clear that this was a coordinated operation intended to sweep up
as many people as possible, not based on any individualized reason, but
based on their apparent race, ethnicity or occupation; arrest them and
expel as many of them from the country as possible, regardless of
whether they knew their rights or the consequences," said Bree
Bernwanger, an attorney with the ACLU of Northern California, one of
three ACLU affiliates representing plaintiffs in the case.
Asked to comment on the allegations, a spokesperson for the Department
of Homeland Security said Border Patrol enforcement actions are "highly
targeted." Any alleged or potential misconduct by agents would be
referred for investigation, the agency said.
A spokesperson for the Border Patrol's El Centro sector said the agency
does not comment on pending litigation.
The El Centro sector — headquartered more than 300 miles from Kern
County's sprawling farm fields and orchards — led the unusual January
raid at the tail end of the Biden administration. Chief Agent Gregory
Bovino, a 25-plus-year veteran who leads the Imperial County unit,
headed up the operation without the involvement of U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement. He is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Three former Biden administration officials, who requested anonymity
because they were not authorized to share operational details, told The
Times that Bovino "went rogue" with the January raid. No higher-ups knew
about the operation before watching it unspool in real time, two of the
former officials said.
In official statements, Bovino has justified the raid by noting that the
sector's area of responsibility stretches from the border to the Oregon
line, "as mission and threat dictates." Border Patrol officials have
said the raid, dubbed Operation Return to Sender, resulted in the
arrests of 78 immigrants in the country illegally, including a child
rapist. The agency has not specified how many of the immigrants detained
had criminal records.
Advocates on the scene, meanwhile, said the operation indiscriminately
targeted Latino farmworkers commuting from the fields along California
Route 99 and day laborers soliciting work in the parking lots of big box
stores. They estimate close to 200 people were detained.
According to the legal complaint, agents swarmed businesses where
farmworkers and day laborers gather, and pulled over vehicles in
predominantly Latino neighborhoods, targeting people of color and
questioning them about their immigration status. The complaint accuses
Border Patrol agents of employing multiple unlawful practices. Among
them: detaining people without reasonable suspicion that they were in
the country unlawfully, in violation of the Fourth Amendment's
prohibitions on unreasonable search and seizure.
If people declined to answer questions about their immigration status,
according to the complaint, agents conducted searches without warrants
or consent. In some cases, the complaint alleges, when people who had
been pulled over in their cars declined to answer questions, agents
responded by "smashing the car's windows, slashing the car's tires,
and/or ordering or physically pulling people out of vehicles and
handcuffing them."
At the time of the raid, the U.S. Border Patrol said Operation Return to
Sender "focused on interdicting those who have broken U.S. federal law,
trafficking of dangerous substances, noncitizen criminals, and
disrupting the transportation routes used by Transnational Criminal
Organizations."
Instead, according to the complaint, the operation swept up people with
pending immigration applications, no criminal histories and established
homes in the community. Many of those deported left behind spouses and
U.S.-born children, advocates told The Times.
Under federal law, an immigration enforcement officer may, without a
warrant, interrogate people about their right to be in the country, as
long as people are not involuntarily detained for questioning. More
intrusive encounters require reasonable suspicion that a crime is afoot,
according to the Congressional Research Service.
The lawsuit offers multiple examples of people it contends were treated
unlawfully during the January raid.
Wilder Munguia Esquivel, a 38-year-old Bakersfield resident who works as
a day laborer and handyman, was standing outside Home Depot on Jan. 7
when agents in unmarked cars arrived, demanding to see people's
immigration papers, according to the complaint.
When Munguia Equivel backed away, the complaint says, he was handcuffed
and agents rifled through his wallet.
"At no point did the Border Patrol agent identify himself, explain to
Mr. Munguia Esquivel why he had stopped him, explain why he had arrested
him, or produce a warrant," the complaint says. "At no point did he ask
Mr. Munguia Esquivel about his family, employment or community ties, or
undertake any evaluation of whether he posed a flight risk."
Mungia Equivel, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, was transported to El Centro
and eventually released, according to the complaint.
But scores of other laborers detained in the raid were transported to
the El Centro Station for processing, then pressured to sign voluntary
deportation agreements, according to the complaint.
Agents coerced people into signing the agreements, the lawsuit says, by
detaining them in holding cells without access to sleeping quarters,
showers, hygiene products or sufficient food and denying them
communication with attorneys or family members. It says agents directed
people to sign their names on an electronic screen without informing
them of their Fifth Amendment right to an immigration hearing. They
received a copy of the form they had signed only after they had been
expelled to Mexico, it says.
At least 40 of the people arrested were expelled across the border after
accepting voluntary departure, the complaint says.
President Trump ran for office promising the largest deportation effort
in U.S. history, initially focusing his rhetoric on tracking down
undocumented immigrants who have been accused of violent crimes. His
administration now says it considers all immigrants in the U.S. without
legal authorization to be criminals, because they have violated
immigration laws.
The complaint asks the court to compel the Border Patrol and its parent
agencies, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and
Border Protection, to conduct operations in compliance with the
Constitution and federal statutes.
"Without court intervention, we have every reason to expect that
Operation Return to Sender was just the first example of what we will
continue to see from Border Patrol," Bernwanger said.
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This article is part of The Times' equity reporting initiative , funded
by the James Irvine Foundation , exploring the challenges facing
low-income workers and the efforts being made to address California's
economic divide.
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