In early January, as the days of the Biden administration wound down and the Trump era loomed, five dozen Border Patrol agents deployed to predominantly Latino Kern County, 300 miles from the California-Mexico border, and began what they say was a targeted search for criminal immigrants.
But attorneys for some who were subjected to their tactics that week said it was a “fishing expedition” targeting people of a certain skin color, regardless of citizenship and status. In a lawsuit filed on Feb. 26, they allege that agents abused their power, made arrests without warrants and used trickery to get people to agree to leave the country. These actions left the region shaken, they said.
“They stopped us because we look Latino or like farmworkers, because of the color of our skin. It was unfair,” Maria Guadalupe Hernandez Espinoza, 46, a grandmother, said in a statement.
Hernandez Espinoza, who was arrested on Jan. 7 after working her shift at a tomato greenhouse, is one of at least 40 people who were removed from the country under what is known as voluntary departure, the ACLU states in its complaint.
On Jan. 8, agents arrested Ernesto Campos Gutierrez, 44, a U.S. citizen and 20-year Bakersfield, California, resident, the lawsuit states. He was on his way to a gardening job when agents blocked his truck, slashed his tires, dragged a passenger from the truck and arrested them, the complaint adds. They accused Campos Gutierrez of alien smuggling and held him for four hours, according to the lawsuit filed by United Farm Workers and five others. He was not deported.
“This was a fishing expedition, in which Border Patrol didn’t target any particular people, used racial profiling and swept through the community,” Bree Bernwanger, a senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California, told NBC News.
Later that same day, Border Patrol agents pulled over Yolanda Aguilera Martinez, 56, a lawful permanent resident “for no discernible reason,” the lawsuit alleges. A 45-year-old Kern County resident, Aguilera Martinez showed her California driver’s license. Border Patrol ordered her out of the car, threw the mother and grandmother to the ground, handcuffed her and arrested her, the lawsuit alleges.
While she was being held in the back of an SUV, an agent allowed her to call someone to send a photo of her legal residency card. After he scanned it, he told her “get the f— out of here,” according to the lawsuit.
The arrests were carried out 300 miles from the California-Mexico border, well beyond the 100 air miles from the border that Border Patrol has claimed as the zone where it can conduct warrantless searches.
The Los Angeles Times, citing three former Biden administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, reported last week that El Centro sector Border Patrol chief agent Gregory Bovino “went rogue” with the operation and did it without knowledge of higher-ups.
Asked for comment, Customs and Border Protection, which includes Border Patrol, emailed a response attributed to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson that said Border Patrol enforcement actions are “highly targeted.”
“When we discover any alleged or potential misconduct, we immediately refer it for investigation and cooperate fully with any criminal or administrative investigations,” the spokesperson also said.
The statement did not mention the allegations in the lawsuit nor whether Bovino’s role in the arrests was under investigation. Jaime Ruiz, a CBP spokesperson, said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
Bovino touted the arrests in Kern County on social media. His posts highlight those arrested with criminal backgrounds and include one that states that Border Patrol agents in that jurisdiction, known as a sector, “go the extra mile — or 500 of them …,” a reference to the reach of its jurisdiction.
In a statement last month, Bovino said that sector’s responsibility stretches from the border “all the way to the Oregon line.”
