Lawsuit Challenges Immigration Raids in California Farm Country

In the last days of the Biden administration, immigration operations sparked worry in the Central Valley of California.  Arrests were made and allegations of civil rights abuses followed.   

Yesterday, the ACLU of Southern California filed a lawsuit:

“[I]n 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.” 

The ACLU alleges in the lawsuit that the operation unlawfully targeted “people of color who appeared to be farm workers or day laborers, regardless of their actual immigration status or individual circumstances.” Sounds like racial profiling.  According to the complaint, the raids violated the Fourth Amendment through arrests without probable cause and stops without reasonable suspicion.  Read the complaint. 

Cal Matters reports on the claims that “Border Patrol agents slashed tires, yanked people out of trucks, threw people to the ground, and called farmworkers `Mexican bitches’ during unannounced raids in Kern County in early January . . . .” 

Here is the Los Angeles Times report on the lawsuit.

KJ