“A Mountain of Evidence” of Racial Profiling

Trump administration’s immigration tactics blasted by judge

Brian Gavidia, a 29-year-old US citizen from Montebello in Los Angeles County, was working at his family's tow yard when a group of masked federal immigration agents approached him. Moments later, one of the agents pushed him into a metal gate and demanded to know which city and hospital he was born in.

In a video that later went viral, Gavidia identifies himself. "I’m American, bro," he says, pulling out his driver’s license. He said he handed the agent his Real ID, but it was never returned. The agent also took his phone and held it for 20 minutes before giving it back. Gavidia was never arrested.

Gavidia later reiterated his citizenship in an interview with KCAL-TV, a local station. “East Los Angles, born and raised, man,” he said.

Gavidia isn’t an exception. Even before Trump’s second term began, his border czar Tom Homan promised “shock and awe” on immigration. With these tactics — targeting public spaces, businesses, and street corners, often with no clear evidence that those being stopped were undocumented — that’s exactly what the federal government is delivering. Reports of US citizens being detained by immigration officials have come from around the country.

Over the past month, Southern California in particular has seen a wave of aggressive actions led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), backed in some cases by the California National Guard and US Marines. Since early June, ICE and CBP agents in full tactical gear have rolled through immigrant neighborhoods in LA and surrounding communities in large, organized groups designed to attract the attention of onlookers. They show up at places like car washes, Home Depot parking lots, swap meets, and street corners, where day laborers gather. In some cases, agents have stopped individuals with no clear basis other than their skin color or speaking Spanish.

Community members and civil liberties attorneys describe it as a campaign not just to enforce immigration laws, but to intimidate. Parents have reported avoiding public parks and canceling summer programs for fear of immigration raids. Business owners say foot traffic has plummeted.

Salvador Melendez, the mayor of Montebello — where Gavidia lives — watched the video of the encounter and saw it as part of a pattern. He called the situation “extremely frustrating.”

Salvador Melendez

“It just seems like there’s no due process. They’re just getting folks that look like our community and taking them and questioning them,” he said. “They’re going for a specific look, which is a look of our Latino community, our immigrant community.”

Legal blowback

At least one lawsuit has been filed by immigrant advocacy groups, who were joined by the city and county of Los Angeles. The lawsuit alleges that immigration officials are violating the Constitution and federal law, and that people are not being targeted with evidence or to execute judicial warrants for alleged wrongdoing, but because of their race, language, and location.

“Individuals with brown skin are approached or pulled aside by unidentified federal agents, suddenly and with a show of force, and made to answer questions about who they are and where they are from,” the complaint said.

In a ruling late last week, US District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong called parts of the administration’s immigration operation unconstitutional, citing “a mountain of evidence” of racial profiling.

She noted that SWAT teams were beating people and that detainees were being held in cramped, inhumane conditions that don’t have “beds, showers, or medical facilities.”

“Some rooms are so cramped that detainees cannot sit, let alone lie down, for hours at a time,” her ruling said. “Detainees are… routinely deprived of food, and some have not even been given water other than what comes out of the combined sink and toilet in the group detention room. Upon asking for food, detainees have been told repeatedly that the facility has run out.”

Frimpong also found that detainees didn’t have adequate access to legal counsel.

She wrote that the government’s tactics violated core constitutional protections. “Roving patrols without reasonable suspicion violate the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution,” her ruling said, referring to the amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. And she said that denying detainees access to legal counsel violates the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause.

Frimpong issued a temporary restraining order blocking the government from stopping and detaining people based on race or ethnicity; on a person’s speaking Spanish, or English with an accent; or on a person’s presence at a particular location — such as a day-laborer or agricultural site — or the type of work performed. The order applies to Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Kern, and Santa Barbara counties. It doesn’t end all immigration enforcement activity, but it prohibits the tactics described.

Frimpong also mandated that the government — which has deployed hundreds of agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies across Los Angeles County — ensure that detainees have access to legal counsel. And she ordered immigration officials to keep records of all stops and detentions, and the reasons for them.

A fuller hearing is expected in the coming weeks, as the groups who sued the government seek a more lasting order known as a preliminary injunction.

A show of force, and a raid turned deadly

The tactics noted by Judge Frimpong weren’t the only ones being used in the Los Angeles area.

Last week, dozens of ICE and CBP officers marched in formation through MacArthur Park, long a gathering place for immigrants from across Latin America. The agents — some on horseback, others in military-style gear — were flanked by National Guard troops. Families scattered. A nearby children’s day camp shut down mid-morning amid the show of force.

When asked whether any arrests had been made during the sweep, a senior Department of Homeland Security official said, “We don’t comment on ongoing enforcement operations.” It remains unclear whether anyone was arrested, and no specific targets were identified. The message was apparently in the march: We are here. We are watching.

Critics say the choice of location was no accident. “MacArthur Park is the Ellis Island of the West Coast. It was chosen as this administration’s latest target precisely because of who lives there and what it represents: resilience, diversity and the American dream,” said City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who represents the area.

“Please understand that what’s happening here in the city of Los Angeles, we are the canary in the coal mine,” Hernandez continued. “What you see happening in MacArthur Park is coming to you... So wake up.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also condemned the flex by federal agents, calling it “outrageous and un-American” at an impromptu press conference at City Hall after federal authorities cleared out.

“What happened to [going after] the criminals, the drug dealers, the violent individuals? Who were in the park today were children. It was their summer camp, their summer day camp,” she said.

And in a separate operation last week, ICE and CBP agents descended on two state-licensed and -regulated cannabis greenhouses in Camarillo and Carpinteria, northwest of Los Angeles. “This is quickly becoming one of the largest operations since President Trump took office,” DHS also said on X, “and we’re only getting started.”

According to a news release that the Department of Homeland Security sent to The Preamble, 361 people were detained, including 14 minors whom DHS claimed to have “rescued from potential exploitation, forced labor, and human trafficking.” The agency also said ICE and CBP arrested “violent and dangerous criminal illegal aliens during the operation,” naming four individuals out of the hundreds detained as having criminal records.

But the incident underscored the danger of conducting militarized raids in workplaces as the large-scale enforcement action sparked chaos and a violent backlash. Hundreds of demonstrators converged on the site, blocking roads and throwing objects at law enforcement officers. DHS said that “one violent agitator fired a gun at law enforcement officers.”

Authorities then fired nonlethal rounds and tear gas into the crowd as workers tried to leave the site. One of the workers, Jaime Alanís García, fell 30 feet through the roof of a greenhouse while reportedly trying to escape. He later died of his injuries. It remains unclear whether García was undocumented, but according to workers on site, he fled when the agents entered, fearing detention. His niece said Alanís has been working in the US for 30 years to provide for his wife and daughter back in Mexico. Four US citizens are being criminally processed for resisting or assaulting agents.

Jaime Alanís García

Communities fight back

In the wake of the court ruling and the raids, immigrant communities across Southern California are mobilizing. Legal aid tents have popped up in affected neighborhoods, while community groups are holding “know your rights” workshops at churches, markets, and Home Depot parking lots. Volunteers are distributing cards explaining what to do if approached by immigration agents.

Meanwhile, a coalition of community groups has launched a “Summer of Resistance” campaign. The 30-day effort focuses on nonviolent tactics like prayer, fasting, art, and legal education. Organizers are planning a region-wide strike on August 12 to spotlight the ongoing fear gripping immigrants and their families.

And even, in some cases, natural-born citizens. Brian Gavidia says he still feels shaken by what happened outside the tow yard last month. He keeps replaying the moment he was shoved, even as he explained again and again that he was born in the US.

“We’re not safe, guys,” he said. “We’re not safe in America today. Be careful.”