ACLU argues Border Patrol broke court order with high-profile Sacramento raid

The American Civil Liberties Union and United Farm Workers filed a motion accusing the Border Patrol of violating a court order designed to curb racial profiles and illegality in the Central Valley with no authority to arrest.

They hope the judges need new training and agents that are prohibited from participating July raid in Sacramento From taking part in other operations until retraining.

In April, a federal district court judge ruled that the Border Patrol may have violated the constitutional protection and protection of epilepsy during one period January action in Kern County Called the “return to the sender’s action,” where agents flock to Home Depot and Latino markets, as well as other areas where workers often appear. Judge Orders Leading by Border Patrol Gregory Bovino, Chief of El Centro Divisionstop raids in eastern California, which covers most of the central valley, including Sacramento.

Bovino brought his agent to Los Angeles in June, where they actively spent several weeks Workers who pursue Latino Outside home warehouses, car washes, bus stops and other areas. Agents often wear masks and use unmarked vehicles.

Federal District Court Judge Proxy is temporarily prohibited From a raid in the Los Angeles area, Bovino briefly moved north to Sacramento in July, detaining Latino day workers in a home warehouse parking lot.

In an interview with Fox News near the parking lot, Bovino said his business was accelerating at the time and he didn’t slow down. “There is no sanctuary anywhere,” Bovino said.

“We’re here to stay. We won’t go anywhere. We’ll affect this mission and secure the homeland.”

Bovino told Fox that the attack was targeted and based on Intel.

“Everything we do is targeted,” he said. “We do have the intelligence, the goal we are interested in this Home Depot and other targeted law enforcement packages in and around the Sacramento area.”

In a motion filed last week, the American Civil Liberties Union and United Farm workers demanded a preliminary injunction issued by the federal district court in April that prohibits border patrol personnel from stopping people without reasonable suspicion and unparalleled arrests without assessing flight risks.

If awarded, the motion could violate the Bovino plan or participate in a new raid in the eastern region. Bovino seems to be moving forward: He announced on his social media account Tuesday that LA Crackdown will be Expand to other cities across the country.

A Border Patrol spokesman did not return a request for comment regarding the ACLU and UFW motion.

If the plaintiff in the Kern County case succeeds in urging the judge to strengthen or enforce the original injunction, the case may have a nationwide impact, providing a legal strategy that can be replicated in communities where agents use similar strategies. In Los Angeles and Southern California, despite similar but separate temporary restraining orders in the Central region, agents continue to highlight raids and violent tactics unless similar activities are conducted there.

As part of the original preliminary injunction, Border Patrol Agents are required to provide documents to the ACLU regarding its specific and personal reasonable doubts, with no guarantee of cessation for each time.

Plaintiffs accused agents of making and copying and pasting template language for reports of Home Depot raids in southern Sacramento.

According to the documents, dozens of armed and masked agents from Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies compare with people in Sacramento parking lots, ordering them not to move while requesting to view documents.

Witnesses described unmarked Chevrolet trucks, dressed in “soldier-like” agents, people were caught and worn with no explanation. At least one U.S. citizen was hunted and detained during the operation, but the Border Patrol would not release the arrest report to the ACLU because the agency said it had nothing to do with immigration violations. The agency told the media that the man cut one of their tires in the parking lot.

Students are detained near Home Depot

Agents also resolved and arrested an 18-year-old high school student who happened to walk to nearby Rose, according to the motions from ACLU and UFW.

Valley High School senior Selvin Osbeli Mejia Diaz fled violence in Central America last year and came to the United States as an unaccompanied minor. He lived in Sacramento with his aunt in Sacramento and complyed with orders in his immigration court case, according to the motions of ACLU and UFW.

According to his statement, he was walking to the store to buy a shirt when an unmarked Chevrolet pulled up behind him. According to Mejia Diaz’s manifesto, a masked agent slammed him from the car, tangled him on the ground and put on any problematic ones.

“Everything happened very quickly and I was very scared because I didn’t know who that man was,” Mejia Diaz wrote in his manifesto. “He was much taller than me, he used a lot of power and when I was on the ground he immediately handcuffed me…I think they saw me and thought they could arrest me because I looked Latino.”

Mejia Diaz was born in Guatemala and turned to border agents in June 2024 after crossing the U.S. border. After a raid at his home warehouse, he was taken to a detention center in downtown Sacramento, where he had to sleep on a hard ceramic floor with an aluminum blanket. He said he was detained for several days and was then allowed to give his aunt a few minutes.

He is still in the Imperial Regional Detention Center.

The ACLU claims that the Border Patrol report for Mejia Diaz said he was in the Home Depot parking lot, which they said supported their claim that the agents are using “copy and paste” language for each arrest report.

How Border Patrols Have a Reason to Arrest

The ACLU also said that the Border Patrol’s official documents on the attacks required by the court order were filled with other factual errors and boilerplate language.

These forms are called Form I-213 and are intended to record reasonable doubts about every unassured stop that agents have made. During the discovery, the Border Patrol provided an arrest report for the ACLU 11 Sacramento raid. Three of them include the “X” placeholder, rather than specific information about the location or name or details of the arrest.

Almost every report uses the same language, claiming that people “escape from the agent” is a factor in the agent’s reasonable suspicion. According to the motion, several witnesses told the ACLU that some people were not running. The plaintiff also believes that the person running from the masked, armed person is not enough to reasonably doubt.

A few reports justify unsecured arrests: “Sacramando, California, was identified as the city where many illegal foreigners stayed, lived and worked without any legal documents in the United States.” Others pointed out that California is a shelter.

The arresting officer noted: “(People) are located in California, which is a shelter. The shelter state covers up the identity of illegal foreigners from the identity of immigration officials.” The plaintiff argued that someone in the shelter was not enough to give the agent a reasonable suspicion that they were illegal in the country.

California’s asylum laws curb local law enforcement cooperation with immigration authorities and prevent the automatic handover of people to federal immigration custody, except for those convicted of serious or violent felony.

The motion states that the Border Patrol will not provide reports for individuals who are detained but subsequently released. The ACLU requires judges to shorten the Border Patrol report from seven to four days, as many people detained in the Sacramento raid have been deported when they received the arrest report.

A hearing on the motion to enforce the ban is scheduled to be held in Fresno in October.

Fry and Olmos wrote what originally appeared for Cal Matters.