SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — U.S. Border Patrol agents have publicly boasted about indiscriminately stopping and arresting Latinos, farmworkers and day laborers in Kern County in January 2025 and have “vowed to continue dragnet sweeps across Central Valley,” the ACLU reported.
During the January 2025 Kern County operation led by El Centro Sector Chief Gregory Bovino, “agents swarmed a Home Depot and Latino market, among other areas frequented by laborers.” Border Patrol also “pulled over cars along rural highways near farms and in predominantly Latino neighborhoods in Bakersfield and demanded the occupants’ papers,” the ACLU stated.
Seventy-eight people were arrested during the raids in Kern County, and records do not show that agents had any knowledge of who the individuals were when they were stopped. “Only one individual had an immigration history,” the ACLU said…