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Summary
In January, Immigration Sweets shook the Central Valley. A new lawsuit says that raids are illegally aimed at colorful people, regardless of their immigration status.
Border patrol agents cut tires, pulled people out of trucks, threw people to the ground, and called farm workers “Mexican bitches” during unannounced raids in Kern County in early January, according to a complaint filed today by the US Union for Civil Freedom.
The Organization for Civil Freedoms on Wednesday brought a case to the federal court, stating that the operation was illegally aimed at “colorful people who seem to be workers in agriculture or workers, regardless of their actual immigration status or individual circumstances.” According to him, the raids violated the protection of the fourth amendment to unreasonable demand and seizure, including through arrests without probable reason and stopping without reasonable suspicion.
The border patrol did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Thehe Almost weekly cleaning in January During the predominant Latin American neighborhoods of Bakersfield, it was the first large -scale operation in California after President Donald Trump’s election, although it happened before it came to office. Trump swore to deport millions to the “most big deportation program” in US history.
After taking office, his administration flew Venezuelan migrants to Guantanamo Bay, raised restrictions on immigration agents, arresting people in schools, hospitals and churches and deported Asian asylum seekers in Panama and Costa Ric Many have been sent further to facilities in the jungle The Darién Gap.
In early January, border patrol agents based on the United States-Mexico border travel north more than 300 miles to Bakersfield to hold immigration vacations. Gregory K. Bovino, the border patrol chief in El Centro, who was referred to as a defendant in the case, called him “Operation is returned to the sender”.
“We accept it to bad people and bad things in Bakersfield,” Bovino said on social media. “We plan operations for other locals (SIC) as Freen and especially Sacramento.”
People who have witnessed the heels They said Calmatters earlier It seems that agents in Kern County stopped at random farm workers and daily workers, profiling them based on their appearance and wanted their documents. The fourth amendment does not allow border patrol agents to detain people without reasonable suspicion that man is in the country illegal. The perceived race, an ethnic origin of a person, cannot justify the detention of a person, ACLU says in a court case brought to the Fresh Department of the Eastern County of California.
The raids caused panic and confusion in the community and had a freezing effect on the local business, which made workers stay away from the fields, according to Antonio de Loera, director of communication for united farms workers and others. Manufacturers and agricultural leaders in California have warned that the promised mass deportations of Trump will disrupt the delivery of food in the country, which will lead to shortage and higher prices.
California provides over one -third of the country’s vegetables and nearly three quarters of its fruits and nuts.
Border patrol agents initially covered about 200 people in the “illegal Dragne”, according to ACLU’s complaint. The agency announced at a time when its employees made 78 arrests during the break. Of these, at least 40 were sent to Mexico after being pressured to accept voluntary departure, according to ACLU. According to the complaint, most have lived in the United States for years and have left behind families, communities, homes and livelihoods.
The agents approached a man, a 38-year-old licensed master as he stood in front of a home depot with a group of workers on the day on January 7th. When he tried to move away, an officer followed him, handcuffed him and arrested him, according to the complaint. The man has lived in Bakersfield for 12 years.
The next morning, the border patrol pulled over a man working as a gardener and pulling a trailer full of gardening. When the man refused to hand over his keys to a truck, the agent cut his tires, according to ACLU. The man is a US citizen.
When his passenger did not immediately open his door, Agent threatened to break the window. When the passenger dropped the window and opened the door, the agent dragged him from the truck, according to the complaint.
The other afternoon agents pulled over a woman for no apparent reason. She showed the agents her valid driver’s license in California, but they ordered her from the car, threw her to the ground and arrested her, according to ACLU’s complaint. It is a legal permanent resident of the United States.
As he moved home after a day to work on the fields, a man living in Kern County for 20 years was stopped and arrested. The agents called him and his passenger “Mexican bitches”. When he told agents that he had four young children, the agent replied that he did not care and that he would “go to Mexico anyway,” the complaint said.
The agents then took the people who arrested at the El Centro border patrol station, right north of the US -Mexico border, where they were held in frigid cold cells known as HillerasS They are not given access to sleep rooms, showers, hygiene products or enough food, according to ACLU. People were not allowed telephone calls for lawyers and family members. Agents are pressing them to sign a “voluntary departure” forms, which allows them to be expelled to Mexico.
Voluntary departure is a process that some people can qualify to be sent back to their home countries without having the long -term consequences of deporting their records.
Several are already in Mexical in Mexico, south of Kalexiko, separated from their families, homes and communities. “They don’t know when they will see their families again,” the complaint said.
