A labor union representing farm workers that for more than a decade begged the Border Patrol to enforce immigration laws is now part of a lawsuit against the Border Patrol for doing just that. The lawsuit, filed by the United Farm Workers (UFW) and five Kern County residents, seeks to stop the Border Patrol from future enforcement actions that stop, arrest, and remove “community members” from the country.
The lawsuit was filed in response to a week-long immigration enforcement operation conducted by Border Patrol agents assigned to the El Centro Sector of the United States Border Patrol in January. The targeted enforcement action, dubbed “Operation Return to Sender,” was based on intelligence received by the agency regarding the presence of specific individuals who were illegally present in the Kern County area and were suspected of being involved in criminal activity, according to the Border Patrol.
In an announcement by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Wednesday, the civil rights group described the action as “brazen and unlawful raids by federal agents.” The lawsuit, filed against the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Border Patrol, asserts the practices employed during the operation violated the U.S. Constitution and federal law in the predominantly “Latine” areas of Kern County and the surrounding region. The term “Latine” was created as a gender-neutral term to refer to people of Latin American descent…