BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — A federal court has issued a preliminary injunction against U.S. Border Patrol following a series of immigration raids earlier this year in Kern County, prompting renewed scrutiny from civil rights advocates.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which filed the lawsuit, alleges Border Patrol agents detained residents in January without proper legal justification, targeting individuals based on race and pressuring some into voluntary departures.
“They stopped a ton of people just for being brown,” said Oliver Ma, an attorney with ACLU SoCal. “They pulled them over first, and then asked questions later.”
According to the ACLU, many of those detained had lived in the U.S. for years, had no criminal history and were longtime agricultural workers with U.S. citizen children.
In April, a judge blocked Border Patrol from conducting further enforcement actions in California’s Eastern District without reasonable suspicion. The injunction also requires retraining of agents and mandates that the agency submit a list of arrests in the region every 60 days to ensure compliance.
“We’ve gotten one report so far,” Ma said. “It said there were no arrests in that time, which tells us they may actually be complying — for now.”
The ACLU also raised concerns about leadership changes within the agency. Ma pointed to Gregory Bovino, the chief of the El Centro Border Patrol sector who oversaw the January operation in Kern County, saying he has since been assigned to lead current enforcement efforts in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
“They actually call the operation in Kern County a ‘proof of concept,’” Ma said. “And then they put the person who ran it in charge of new raids in Southern California.”
The ACLU said it will continue to collect reports from residents and monitor Border Patrol’s activity under the terms of the court order.
The next arrest report from Border Patrol is expected in the coming weeks. The ACLU said it may consider additional legal action if future violations are identified.
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