US Border Patrol arrests migrants during latest enforcement operation
Immigrant communities in Kern County, California, are on edge as the U.S. Border Patrol has been seen conducting enforcement operations throughout the region this week.
Videos and images that surfaced online appear to show Border Patrol agents apprehending people at various locations throughout the region. United States Customs and Border Protection has confirmed the operations, which officials describe as “targeted.”
“The USBP conducts targeted enforcement arrests of individuals involved in smuggling throughout our areas of operations as part of our efforts to dismantle transnational criminal organizations,” a CBP spokesperson said in a statement.
However, Sarah Fuentes, a manager at a Chevron station in Bakersfield, told ABC News she saw Border Patrol officers and agents in plain clothes go up to several of her customers, ask them about their immigration status, and arrest multiple people.
Fuentes says she thought the officers were serving a warrant, but noticed “it was only Hispanics and field workers that they were putting aside.”
“Then we seen it again, and we're like, wait a minute, this is a raid, they're picking up random people like the field workers. They don't have an order to do that,” she said in a phone interview. “It's just random people that are walking in that work in the field.”
Fuentes shared photos and videos she took of the incident, including one she says shows a woman who locked herself in her car as a person in plain clothes allegedly urged her to open her door. “10-15 minutes after she refused, they got a Border Patrol truck to park behind her vehicle so she wouldn’t be able to leave,” she said. When press arrived, the agents allegedly let the woman go, according to Fuentes.
United Farm Workers members were detained throughout Kern County as part of the operation , the union said in a post on X.
“UFW union members are among those detained while traveling home from work yesterday in Kern County, CA. We are providing them and their families with support. Random actions like this are not meant to keep anyone safe, they are intended to terrorize hardworking people,” the post said.
UFW says an initial and rough estimate shows as many as 192 people may have been detained in Kern County this week.
Antonio De Loera-Brust, Communications Director for UFW, said he’s never seen this kind of operation in the region before.
“They’re very far from the border and despite their public claims that they’re conducting targeted operations, everything we’re hearing and seeing indicates random detention, stopping people in public areas, at gas stations, basically at random.”
Karen Goh, the mayor of Bakersfield, confirmed to ABC News that the police department is aware of the operations but is not assisting federal agencies.
“The Bakersfield Police Department is aware the U.S. Border Patrol is conducting operations in the City of Bakersfield. State law requires that no local or state resources are used to assist in federal immigration enforcement. The Bakersfield Police Department remains strictly focused on local public safety responsibilities. If a resident is a victim and is in need of police services, irrespective of his/her immigration status, the resident is welcome to call the Bakersfield Police Department,” she said in a statement shared with ABC News.
Oliver Ma, an attorney for the ACLU of Southern California, says the organization has received multiple reports of Border Patrol officers showing up at farm-working communities and other locations throughout the county.
“We heard, for example, from one person who was fueling up for gas and she said the border patrol came behind her car, started asking who she was, and put down tire spikes behind her car so she couldn't leave,” he told ABC News. “They tried to figure out what her name was and then she saw them also approach seven people who were just having lunch nearby and began talking to them and then all seven people were arrested and taken away.”
