US Border Patrol Called Raid 300 Miles From Border 'Targeted'. Open Source Evidence Suggests Otherwise
In early January, agents from the El Centro division of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) descended on the central Californian city of Bakersfield and the surrounding Kern County as part of “Operation Return to Sender”. The unit said the mission was highly targeted and aimed to apprehend immigrants with criminal records.
Yet exactly how targeted the mission was has become a point of significant tension, with rights and labour groups claiming it was anything but.
El Centro sector, which is based in the southern United States border city of the same name, said the operation resulted in the arrest of 78 people. Most were Mexican nationals and many had lived in the US for decades. According to a lawsuit, 40 people were deported after the operation. Some were removed from the US within days of being arrested.
The raids – which saw officers operating at gas stations, a Latino shopping market and during traffic stops – shocked many in Bakersfield. They were also unique given they were carried out by CBP officers, rather than by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), many hundreds of miles from the southern border.
Bellingcat worked with our partners at Evident and CalMatters, two US-based nonprofit newsrooms, to build a picture of the raids from available social media footage. We analysed close to 90 videos and geolocated just over 50 of them, highlighting 24 unique spots where CBP units were operating during the mission.
Evident and CalMatters also visited El Centro and spoke to border agents, including the unit’s leader.
While they claimed to have a targeted list of people they wanted to arrest, CBP documents obtained by Evident and CalMatters appear to reveal that there was no prior knowledge of criminal or immigration history for 77 of the 78 people arrested. Only one had been flagged for prior removal, suggesting that the rest had been captured after chance encounters or stops by border agents.
Gregory Bovino, the head of the El Centro CBP sector, said that any immigrants that agents encounter during the course of their work can expect to be arrested given they have already broken the law simply by entering the US.
CBP units conducting an operation so far in land (more than 320 miles from El Centro and the border with Mexico as well as over 100 miles of the California coast) was also something that Bovino suggested could continue further north in California.
But groups like the Americans for Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have vowed to fight such tactics, telling Evident and CalMatters that they are a violation of constitutional rights and an overreach by CBP.
Bree Bernwanger, Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU for northern California said that there is some authority for CBP to make immigration arrests. But Bernwagner added that the incidents in Bakersfield and the surrounding area were not “rooted in law”.
“There’s a limit on their ability to arrest people without a warrant. They have to figure out if they’re a flight risk first. That means asking them about their community ties. It means trying to figure out are they going to escape, or are they just going to go home and live with their families,” Bernwagner said.
The ACLU has since asked for a temporary injunction to halt CBP units using such tactics.
But for those deported in the Bakersfield operation, it is already too late.
“Their families, their homes are left behind, and the community is devastated. That is not public safety”, Bernwanger said.
Watch the full Evident documentary here and read CalMatters’ version of the story here.
Sergio Olmos and Wendy Fry reported this story for CalMatters. Kevin Clancy reported for Evident.
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