Anger grows over alleged racial profiling in immigration raids : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x4000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F27%2F88%2Fefbf91e5493caca120c77fc593d2%2Flaiceraids-110.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x4000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F27%2F88%2Fefbf91e5493caca120c77fc593d2%2Flaiceraids-110.jpg" class="img" alt="A man recounts the incident in Montebello, California, where ICE agents entered a junkyard and detained U.S. citizen Javier Ramirez. June 19, 2025. Zaydee Sanchez for NPR" fetchpriority="high"/> A person who witnessed an immigration raid at a junkyard in Montebello, Calif., on June 12, recounted what he noticed. Zaydee Sanchez for NPR conceal caption

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Zaydee Sanchez for NPR Emma de Paz was promoting breakfast to day laborers exterior a Los Angeles House Depot on June 19 when immigration brokers confirmed up. A few of them chased staff by way of the car parking zone. Others rounded up the meals cart distributors. De Paz was handcuffed, compelled onto her knees, and pushed to a federal detention middle downtown.

She known as her brother, Carlos Barrera, from the power.

"They did not ask if she had papers or not. They only grabbed her and put her into one of many vans," Barrera stated, recalling his dialog together with his sister, who has since been transferred to a desert detention middle 90 miles away. "That they had no motive to arrest her. They did not have a warrant."

Although his sister is undocumented, Barrera stated the brokers couldn't have identified that earlier than detaining her or lots of the 29 different folks they rounded up that morning.

"She has darkish pores and skin. They assumed she was Hispanic, and so they took her," he stated. "It is the racial issue."

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4032x2688+0+168/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe3%2F50%2F52663762425ca52573021378f6e8%2Fimg-1576.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4032x2688+0+168/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe3%2F50%2F52663762425ca52573021378f6e8%2Fimg-1576.jpg" class="img" alt="" loading="lazy"/> Images of Emma de Paz below a road vendor's umbrella. De Paz was promoting breakfast from her meals cart exterior a House Depot car parking zone in Los Angeles when immigration brokers raided the lot and arrested her. Adrian Florido/NPR conceal caption

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Adrian Florido/NPR <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4032x2688+0+168/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff8%2F91%2F50ab244e432d9f97dd91d733a4e6%2Fimg-1419.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4032x2688+0+168/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff8%2F91%2F50ab244e432d9f97dd91d733a4e6%2Fimg-1419.jpg" class="img" alt="" loading="lazy"/> De Paz's brother, Carlos Barrera, stated brokers arrested her with out asking any questions. He believes she was focused for trying Hispanic. Adrian Florido/NPR conceal caption

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Adrian Florido/NPR "Open season" on immigrants Immigrant advocates and civil rights attorneys say proof is mounting that immigration brokers finishing up the Trump administration's deportation crackdown in southern California are participating in widespread racial profiling.

They've raided identified hubs for Latino staff nearly each day – ironmongery shop parking tons, automotive washes, and road vendor corners. Movies of a lot of these operations, filmed by bystanders and posted to social media, have proven brokers arresting individuals who look like Latino as they stand on sidewalks or wait at bus stops.

On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union and different authorized teams filed a federal class motion lawsuit alleging that immigration brokers roving the streets are focusing on folks primarily based on the colour of their pores and skin or their obvious occupation. They need a decide to declare the raids unconstitutional.

"There's a actual sense that it's open season on anybody who seems to be an immigrant," stated Eva Bitran, director of immigrants' rights on the ACLU of Southern California. "They're arriving, corralling folks earlier than asking one single query, simply primarily based on their location and their look. Usually they're handcuffing folks even earlier than they've requested for his or her papers, and even after an individual has stated 'I'm a US citizen, I've a inexperienced card, I've each proper to be right here.' "

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3547x5320+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F5a%2F1e%2Fa806ce5449c7a486b558895c59d2%2Flaiceraids-121.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3547x5320+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F5a%2F1e%2Fa806ce5449c7a486b558895c59d2%2Flaiceraids-121.jpg" class="img" alt="Eva Bitran, ACLU immigrant rights attorney. June 19, 2025. Zaydee Sanchez for NPR" loading="lazy"/> Eva Bitran, director of immigrants' rights on the ACLU of Southern California. The civil rights group is difficult the Trump administration's dragnet immigration raids as unconstitutional. Zaydee Sanchez for NPR conceal caption

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Zaydee Sanchez for NPR Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs with the Division of Homeland Safety, denied that immigration brokers are participating in racial profiling.

"Any claims that people have been 'focused' by regulation enforcement due to their pores and skin coloration are disgusting and categorically FALSE," McLaughlin stated in an announcement.

"DHS enforcement operations are extremely focused, and officers do their due diligence," she added. "We all know who we're focusing on forward of time. If and after we do encounter people topic to arrest, our regulation enforcement is educated to ask a collection of well-determined questions to find out standing and removability."

Guidelines govern immigration stops However some authorized consultants say the indiscriminate sweeps brokers look like finishing up seemingly violate guidelines governing their authority to arrest folks they encounter in public, together with Fourth Modification protections towards unreasonable seizure.

Beneath federal regulation, immigration brokers can query anybody about their immigration standing.

However earlier than arresting somebody in public with no warrant, "brokers must have a 'affordable suspicion' that somebody is within the nation illegally," stated Jean Reisz, professor of immigration regulation on the College of Southern California. "That affordable suspicion needs to be primarily based on articulable information. It will possibly't simply be primarily based on race. It will possibly't be that this particular person seems like what I feel somebody from one other nation seems like."

Individuals are free to not reply an immigration agent's questions, but when they attempt to run, brokers usually think about that suspicious sufficient to arrest them, she stated.

Advocates say the Trump administration's formidable each day arrest quotas are main immigration brokers to lean on the thinnest of justifications and on false assumptions about folks they encounter to justify arrests.

"For those who're asking these regulation enforcement companies to arrest 3,000 folks a day, they can not type affordable suspicion for every particular particular person," Bitran stated. "So that they must be chopping corners."

Earlier this yr, the ACLU satisfied a federal decide in Central California that Border Patrol brokers there violated the Structure after they carried out raids that swept up dozens of individuals primarily based largely, the group stated, on their Latino look. These swept up included U.S. residents.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x4000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff1%2Fb5%2Fd1c81b6a4f729ca40af6b98382e5%2Flaiceraids-126.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x4000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff1%2Fb5%2Fd1c81b6a4f729ca40af6b98382e5%2Flaiceraids-126.jpg" class="img" alt="Community members hold a concert at Placita Olvera in downtown Los Angeles to protest recent ICE raids that have left the community in fear. June 19, 2025. Zaydee Sanchez for NPR" loading="lazy"/> A current live performance in downtown Los Angeles to protest ongoing immigration raids. Small protests have popped up nearly each day, usually on the websites the place somebody was arrested for deportation. Zaydee Sanchez for NPR conceal caption

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Zaydee Sanchez for NPR <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4701x3134+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F20%2Ff0%2F2d0826454524bc166efc179d2141%2Flaiceraids-115.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4701x3134+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F20%2Ff0%2F2d0826454524bc166efc179d2141%2Flaiceraids-115.jpg" class="img" alt="Abimael Dominguez recalls the incident when his U.S. citizen brother, Javier Ramirez, was detained by ICE agents and describes feeling powerless to help as it unfolded. June 19, 2025. Zaydee Sanchez for NPR" loading="lazy"/> Abimael Dominguez recalled how Border Patrol brokers arrived at his uncle's junkyard on June 12 and arrested his brother, Javier Ramirez. Ramirez is a U.S. citizen, and was ultimately launched, however his brother stated the expertise traumatized him. Zaydee Sanchez for NPR conceal caption

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Zaydee Sanchez for NPR "I am a U.S. citizen!" On June twelfth, Javier Ramirez was at his uncle's auto junkyard within the largely Latino metropolis of Montebello, east of Los Angeles, when a white unmarked SUV pulled as much as the entrance gate. Video from a safety digital camera exhibits three U.S. Border Patrol brokers rapidly get out, pull up their face coverings, and stroll by way of the gate.

In a second video filmed by Ramirez's brother minutes later, Ramirez is handcuffed whereas an agent pins him towards the fence.

"We're all U.S. residents!" Ramirez shouts. "I've received my passport!"

He tussles with the officer, who pushes him to the bottom. Brokers then load Ramirez right into a van and drive off.

"You may't take him! You may't take him!," Ramirez's brother, Abimael Dominguez, shouts.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2679x4018+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa7%2F18%2F73619d13480aaeb9cb4a425a11e3%2Flaiceraids-119.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2679x4018+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa7%2F18%2F73619d13480aaeb9cb4a425a11e3%2Flaiceraids-119.jpg" class="img" alt="Security cameras are mounted outside Abimael Dominguez’s junkyard business in Montebello, California. June 19, 2025. Zaydee Sanchez for NPR" loading="lazy"/> Safety cameras captured how Border Patrol brokers drove as much as the junkyard, lined their faces and rapidly walked onto the property looking for folks to deport. Zaydee Sanchez for NPR conceal caption

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Zaydee Sanchez for NPR In line with court docket filings, Ramirez was taken to the federal detention middle in downtown Los Angeles. Brokers confirmed his U.S. citizenship, however charged him with assaulting, resisting or impeding a federal officer.

Standing exterior the junkyard on a current morning, Dominguez stated that brokers had no motive to suspect his brother or anybody else working there was within the nation illegally.

"There's quite a lot of Hispanic brothers proper right here," however everybody working within the yard that day was a U.S. citizen, he stated. "Racial profiling is the way in which I have a look at it. As a result of they simply walked in and stated 'hey, you and also you.' "

One other U.S. citizen who was quickly detained through the raid is now a plaintiff within the ACLU's lawsuit.

Javier Ramirez has since been launched on bail. However his brother stated he fears leaving house.

"He is traumatized," Dominguez stated. "That sucks, to be a U.S. citizen and never be capable to stroll within the nation of freedom. It sucks that we're antagonized for being Hispanic."