The Border Patrol Year of Unchecked Force

I’m CalMatters reporter Adam Echelman and I’m filling in for Lynn today.

Border Patrol agents have been going from city to city, away from their home bases in California and elsewhere along the US-Mexico border, for the past 15 months, engaging in an unprecedented campaign of mass deportations.

CalMatters, along with partners Evident Media and Bellingcat, followed these agents, documenting their tactics on the ground and through mountains of video footage, since their first proof-of-concept raid in Bakersfield in January 2025.

Exactly one year later, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Rene Goode in Minneapolis, followed weeks later by the killing of Alex Pretty by a Border Patrol agent.

Our latest investigative video shows that in addition to these two shootings, immigration agents used a pattern of force and questionable detention, aggressive tactics that courts have said are likely unconstitutional.

• John Roth, former inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security: “The first thing you do when you give an agent a gun, a badge, and power over the American people is make sure they follow the Constitution, period.”

• Steve Bunnell, former DHS general counsel: “There are kind of two essential components to DHS and law enforcement in general being effective, and that’s trust and credibility. And they’ve lost those things to the extent that they’ve had them.”

In this new video, we focus on the activities of five US-Mexico border agents whose identities we have been able to confirm. Watch it here.

Remember the week after Trump’s inauguration when he tried to freeze all federal funding?

If the Trump administration had its way, California would have lost a whopping $168 billion. For context, that’s about half of the annual state budget.

But California sued and a judge forced the Trump administration to let the money flow. On Monday, Attorney General Rob Bonta said an appeals court maintained the initial injunction allowing California to continue to access its federal funding while the lawsuit continues. The Trump administration could appeal that decision, which would take the case to the US Supreme Court.

Since taking office, the Trump administration has repeatedly tried to withhold money for other programs, making that initial case seem like a distant memory.

Bonta is suing the federal government over 60 times from 2025. During the first term of Trump’s presidency, California tried 123 times and won two out of three cases.

From CalMatters political reporter Nadia Lathan:

The Legislative Progressive Caucus met Tuesday to outline its plans to deal with cuts in federal Medicaid funding. Notably absent from their requests was any mention of a ballot initiative to tax the state’s ultra-wealthy, which supporters say would go toward the roughly $30 billion California is expected to lose annually in health care funding.

Assemblyman Alex Lee, chairman of the Progressive Caucus and a Milpitas Democrat, said he supports the measure, but that the caucus will not take a position on the initiative until it is formally voted on.

• Lee: “I think the sentiment is very clear that people want the billionaires to pay. Any disagreement is about technicalities and policy, which is good and healthy to have.”

Most Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, oppose the proposal because of concerns that it would spur a mass exodus of the state’s billionaires, some of whom have already left in response to the proposal, and worsen the long-term budget deficit without their income, which makes up a large portion of the state’s revenue.

California has already closed five different prisons since Gov. Gavin Newsom took office in 2019. With the state’s prison system still at capacity, some state lawmakers say it’s time to close a sixth prison. Adam Ashton of CalMatters reports.