ACLU Seeks Injunction Over 800 Officers' LA Immigration Raids, Citing Slurs and Latino Profiling
Updated
Updated · Los Angeles Times · Jul 28
ACLU Seeks Injunction Over 800 Officers' LA Immigration Raids, Citing Slurs and Latino Profiling
3 articles · Updated · Los Angeles Times · Jul 28
Summary
New court filings say Los Angeles immigration agents used slurs including “wet” and “tonk” in body-camera footage and texts, as the ACLU and allied groups asked a federal judge to halt allegedly discriminatory stops.
The motion argues the raids were driven by race rather than individualized suspicion, citing “roving patrols,” “soft counts” of “possibles,” and a June 2025 Home Depot operation where agents were told to “start grabbing people.”
Plaintiffs say the new discovery undercuts government claims to lower courts and the Supreme Court that the operations were intelligence-based, and shows even U.S. citizens and lawful residents were swept into prolonged stops.
The evidence emerged after Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong ordered expedited discovery; at a recent hearing, the government said no personal phones had yet been imaged even though more than 800 officers reported using them during operations.
The filing ties the conduct to a 2025 shift toward mass arrests of “collaterals,” broadening earlier target-based enforcement and sharpening the legal fight over what counts as reasonable suspicion in immigration stops.
What happens when secret texts reveal shocking racial slurs driving federal sweeps in local neighborhoods?
"The 2025–2026 LA ICE Crackdown: Racial Profiling, Supreme Court Shifts, and the Fight for Civil Rights"
Overview
In 2025–2026, federal immigration enforcement in Los Angeles intensified after ICE leadership ordered agents to ramp up arrests, targeting Latinos with discriminatory stops and doubling field teams. Despite a court order that briefly reduced arrests, a Supreme Court ruling allowed agents to use race, language, and occupation as factors for suspicion, leading to widespread unlawful detentions and a collapse of civil rights oversight. This crackdown caused a mental health crisis and economic hardship in immigrant communities, but also sparked strong grassroots self-defense networks and unprecedented Latino voter mobilization, as communities and local governments fought back against federal policies.