CBP’s January immigration raids terrorized communities and tore apart families
BAKERSFIELD – Today, in response to brazen and unlawful raids by federal agents in the Central Valley last month, the United Farm Workers (UFW) and five Kern County residents sued the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Border Patrol to prohibit them from stopping, arresting, and summarily expelling community members from the country using practices that violate the U.S. Constitution and federal law.
In January, Border Patrol agents based at the U.S.-Mexico border traveled over 300 miles to Bakersfield to launch “Operation Return to Sender,” a weeklong operation through predominantly Latine areas of Kern County and the surrounding region.
The operation appears to have been designed to stop, detain, and arrest people of color who appeared to be farmworkers or day laborers, regardless of their actual immigration status or individual circumstances, transport them back to the El Centro Border Patrol Station, and coerce them into “voluntary departure,” a form of summary expulsion which can result in a yearslong bar on reentry to the U.S.
For example, Border Patrol agents required Maria Hernandez Espinoza, who had resided in Kern County for 20 years, to sign forms she was not permitted to read, without disclosing that she was agreeing to leave the country, and ignored her pleas for an opportunity to appear before an immigration judge, as is her right under federal law. Hernandez Espinoza and at least 40 others are now stranded in Mexico, separated from their families and unsure when they will see their loved ones again.
“They stopped us because we look Latino or like farmworkers, because of the color of our skin. It was unfair,” said Maria Hernandez Espinoza, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “I hope our rights are protected so that all workers can work and live in peace.”
Border Patrol agents fanned out across highways, roads near farms, and businesses, indiscriminately stopping and arresting people who were not white. When the people they stopped tried to exercise their rights or, in fact, had lawful immigration status—Border Patrol agents retaliated, in many cases arresting them anyway.
Although "Operation Return to Sender” relied on unlawful practices at every step, Border Patrol has stated its plans to replicate it elsewhere in California.
“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. “As a result of Border Patrol’s coercive tactics, dozens of long-term residents of Kern County are now stranded in Mexico, far from their homes and the families, jobs, and communities that need them. Discriminatory raids by rogue federal agencies undermine the right of Latino citizens to feel at home in their own country. Such raids also intimidate farm workers into tolerating labor exploitation and abuse in the fields, pushing wages and working conditions down for all workers.”
The plaintiffs are represented by the ACLU Foundations of Northern California, Southern California, and San Diego & Imperial Counties, and by Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP.
“Border Patrol’s lawless practices do not make anyone safer. They terrorize communities, violate the Constitution, and disregard limits that Congress has imposed on immigration agents,” said Bree Bernwanger, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California. “This lawsuit seeks to end Border Patrol’s unlawful reliance on racial profiling, indiscriminate arrests without a warrant, and using coercion and deception to deny people their rights.”
Plaintiffs seek to represent three classes of individuals who have been or will be subjected to the three unlawful practices this lawsuit challenges: 1) stops regardless of reasonable suspicion of unlawful presence, 2) arrests without regard to probable cause of flight risk, and 3) voluntary departure without a knowing and voluntary waiver of rights. In their unlawful operation, Border Patrol violated the plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures, their Fifth Amendment right to due process, and other federal laws.
“Border Patrol traveled 300 miles from the border to round up people based on skin color—which is itself unacceptable,” said Ajay Krishnan, partner at Keker, Van Nest & Peters. “But the agents' behavior here—smashing windows, slashing tires, throwing a grandmother to the ground, arresting her, and then letting her go after seeing her green card—is beyond the pale. These illegal practices have to end.”
Read the complaint: https://www.aclusocal.org/sites/default/files/001_complaint.pdf