Bakersfield residents sue federal agencies for 'Operation Return to Sender' immigration raids

The United Farm Workers (UFW) and five Kern County residents have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and U.S. Border Patrol in response to the alleged unlawful immigration  raids that took place last month for violating their constitutional rights and federal law.

The Border Patrol’s operations began on Tuesday, January 7, when the House of Representatives passed its first bill of the year, a border security measure mandating the detention and deportation of unauthorized immigrants charged with theft-related offenses, including shoplifting and burglary. 

On the same day that the Laken Riley Act bill was passed, Border Patrol agents that are based at the U.S.-Mexico border were spotted in Bakersfield. The agents traveled over 300 miles to launch “Operation Return to Sender,” which was a week-long operation targeting predominantly Latino areas in Kern County. Even though the operation only lasted a week, it brought great fear to the undocumented immigrant community. 

The ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Northern California, San Diego and Imperial Counties, and Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP are currently backing the ongoing lawsuit, aiming to block federal agents from carrying out similar operations in the future.

According to the complaint, the operation had appeared to have been designed to stop, detain and arrest people of color who appeared to be farmworkers or day laborers, regardless of their actual immigration status or individual circumstances, transport them back to the El Centro Border Patrol Station, and coerce them into “voluntary departure,” a form of summary expulsion that can result in a years-long bar on reentry to the U.S.

Reyna Olaguez, president and CEO of Building Healthy Communities Kern, said that Border Patrol agents were not just in Bakersfield to target immigrants with criminal backgrounds.“That's right. We know that they lie. They're targeting our hardworking families and they're taking them along with them and they came prepared because they came with buses,” said Olaguez. She also added that the operation created fear among families, children and DACA students.

The complaint also highlights the case of Kern County resident Maria Hernandez, who was instructed by Border Patrol agents to sign forms without being given permission or informed about the content of what she was signing. 

The forms that Hernandez was forced to sign by agents were her basically agreeing to leave the country. In this interaction, agents also ignored her pleas for an opportunity to appear before an immigration judge, as is her right under federal law. 

Hernandez wasn't alone in facing this ordeal. The lawsuit claims that at least 40 others are currently stranded in Mexico, separated from their families and unsure when they will be able to reunite with their loved ones.

“They stopped us because we look Latino or like farmworkers, because of the color of our skin. It was unfair,” said Maria Hernandez Espinoza, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “I hope our rights are protected so that all workers can work and live in peace.” 

The other plaintiffs, along with Hernandez, are Oscar Morales Cisneros, Wilder Munguia Esquivel, Yolanda Aguilera Martinez and Juan Vargas Mendez. Border Patrol agents subjected each of them to at least one of the three alleged unlawful practices that drove “Operation Return to Sender,” and which defendants maintain today. As outlined in the suit, they include: (1) conducting detentive stops without regard to reasonable suspicion that a person is in the country unlawfully, (2) effecting warrantless arrests without regard to probable cause that a person is likely to escape and (3) extracting expulsion through voluntary departure without a knowing, voluntary, and intelligent waiver of rights.

“After these unlawful raids took place, Border Patrol held people at the El Centro Border Patrol Station in freezing cells, where they were cut off from family and denied access to attorneys,” said Brisa Velazquez, an immigrants” rights staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of San Diego and Imperial Counties. According to the lawsuit documents, Border Patrol allegedly intentionally provided people with misinformation and deliberately withheld access to vital documents to coerce them to voluntarily self-deport.

The lawsuit seeks to prohibit CBP and the Border Patrol from conducting similar operations and argues that the enforcement practices violated the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Fifth Amendment right to due process and other federal laws.

CBP and DHS have not yet issued a public response to the lawsuit.