{"id":19810,"date":"2026-07-28T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T07:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=19810"},"modified":"2026-07-28T12:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T07:00:09","slug":"immigration-agents-used-racial-slurs-referring-to-latinos-in-text-messages-video-obtained-by-aclu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=19810","title":{"rendered":"Immigration agents used racial slurs referring to Latinos in text messages, video obtained by ACLU"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/b0e0ed9\/2147483647\/strip\/false\/crop\/8192x5464+0+0\/resize\/1500x1000!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6f%2Fc4%2F4b3111b64f78bae86de3787d3696%2F1513307-me-ice-macarthur-park06-cs.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div data-element=\"story-body\" data-subscriber-content=\"\">\n<p>Immigration agents who descended on Los Angeles last summer referred to Latinos using slurs like \u201ctonk\u201d and \u201cwet,\u201d according to body camera footage and text messages detailed in a court filing asking a federal judge to bar agents from making stops based on racial profiling.<\/p>\n<p>After a June raid at Home Depot in Hollywood, body camera footage captured an agent saying: \u201cThere was a guy, I\u2019m pretty sure he\u2019s wet he was just sitting in that minivan.\u201d A text chain revealed an agent referring to \u201ctonks everywhere selling food\u201d \u2014 using a word <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/border-patrol-agents-tonk-usage-emails-messages-released_n_65cbcfffe4b065628a611059\" target=\"_blank\">reportedly derived<\/a> from the sound an agent\u2019s utility flashlight makes when hitting a migrant\u2019s head. In a video, an agent said, \u201cYeah, just plug us in wherever you see some tonks and we\u2019ll jump out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Body camera footage and forensically recovered texts, which provide a window into the mindset of agents who conducted raids throughout the L.A. area, were detailed in a motion for a preliminary injunction filed on Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union, Public Counsel, and other groups and private attorneys seeking to bar an \u201congoing campaign of suspicionless and discriminatory detentive stops\u201d in the Central District of California.<\/p>\n<p>Mayra Joach\u00edn, an attorney at the ACLU of Southern California, said the language agents used underscores that \u201cwhat\u2019s driving the way that immigration operations are being conducted now is a racist sentiment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen is only a fragment of what information there might be, because not all of the government records from phones have been turned over,\u201d Joach\u00edn said. \u201cIt\u2019s also possible that there are many other phone records that have not been turned over and could have even more detrimental evidence for the agency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>The evidence, pertaining to both Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents, was turned over in expedited discovery ordered by U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/story\/2025-09-08\/supreme-court-immigration-stops-los-angeles\">after the Supreme Court stayed<\/a> her <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-07-11\/federal-judge-temporarily-halts-alleged-indiscriminate-immigration-stops\">previous order<\/a> barring stops based solely on race or ethnicity, language, location or employment, either alone or in combination.<\/p>\n<p>Plaintiffs in the case, who filed their lawsuit in June 2025, argued that the discovery \u201cflatly disproves\u201d representations the government made in pursuit of the stay.<\/p>\n<p>The evidence shows that \u201crace is the predominant characteristic driving Defendants\u2019 stops, and that Defendants\u2019 ongoing stops \u2014 including of U.S. citizens \u2014 are neither brief nor unintrusive,\u201d the motion states. <\/p>\n<p>The plaintiffs asked Frimpong to block agents from \u201crelying on a person\u2019s perceived Latino ethnicity to conduct detentive stops, except in connection with a known target description.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the most recent effort by plaintiffs to ensure that there is some transparency as to how immigration enforcement operations are being conducted and also some accountability from the officers engaging in these operations,\u201d Joach\u00edn said. \u201cThere are safeguards in place for how immigration agents should be conducting any operation and what we\u2019re seeing from the evidence is that they are driven largely by racial profiling.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"a-shift-under-trump\" class=\"subhead\">A shift under Trump<\/h2>\n<p>For years, <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2020-03-17\/for-ice-agents-its-business-as-unusual-day-after-sweeping-coronavirus-order\">including during Trump\u2019s first term<\/a>, ICE compiled target lists that would include the daily routines of the people they sought to arrest. Those operations focused on individualized investigations of  specific people. <\/p>\n<p>That changed last year, attorneys said in the motion, citing an email from ICE headquarters in late May 2025 instructing field offices to begin arresting \u201ccollaterals,\u201d or nontargets, en masse. Soon after, plaintiffs allege, agents \u201cembarked on a coordinated campaign of suspicionless stops based on demographic profiling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese operations differ widely from operations that occurred before, when immigration agents would actually investigate and develop articulable facts enough to have reasonable suspicion for the person that they were to stop,\u201d Joach\u00edn said. \u201cNow that\u2019s not what\u2019s occurring, it\u2019s rather racism that\u2019s really pervasive and underlying the way that the agency is operating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Attorneys allege that one way the government executes its \u201cpolicy of race-based profiling\u201d is through \u201croving patrols,\u201d where they drive around without searching for a particular target. In text chains detailed in the motion, agents discussed \u201csoft counts\u201d of \u201cpossibles\u201d based on location drive-bys and \u201croaming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Frimpong issued a temporary restraining order last year, the government \u201crepresented to this Court and the Supreme Court that these operations were based on \u201cintelligence,\u201d the motion states.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut discovery revealed that Defendants\u2019 paltry \u2018intelligence\u2019 was manufactured to justify operations at public access locations Defendants were already intent on raiding,\u201d according to the motion. The attorneys cited a deposition from a veteran ICE agent who was assigned to participate on the operations and said they were not \u201cdesigned in good faith\u201d to arrest the identified targets. <\/p>\n<p>According to the motion, the government sent intelligence-gathering teams to Home Depots and car washes where \u201cthey ran checks until they identified an arbitrary number\u2014typically a small number\u2014of possibly unlawfully present individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDefendants then selected a day to raid the location, without regard to whether the previously identified \u2018targets\u2019 were present,\u201d the motion states. \u201cUnsurprisingly, Defendants frequently did not arrest their supposed \u2018targets,\u2019 even as they arrested numerous others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Attorneys referenced an agent who was captured saying \u201c[G]et out and start grabbing people\u201d right before detaining a lawful permanent resident. <\/p>\n<p>The government asserted that ICE was trying to locate a target when they approached three men, lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit, at a bus stop in Pasadena, according to the motion. The intention that day, plaintiffs argue, \u201calways was to arrest \u2018collaterals.\u2019\u201d In a text chain cited in the motion, the lead officer that day told a colleague to \u201cbring extra cuffs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When that lead officer was later asked in an deposition about the appearance of individuals he looks for, he answered \u201c[o]lder Hispanic male,\u201d according to the motion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn sum, the record plainly establishes that Defendants are really looking for Latinos,\u201d the attorneys argued. <\/p>\n<h2 id=\"text-messages-and-footage\" class=\"subhead\">Text messages and footage<\/h2>\n<p>The motion contains several references to immigration agents using racial epithets such as the slur \u201ctonk.\u201d Guidance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection in 2019 stated that \u201cthe term tonk is not appropriate\u201d because it is \u201cconsidered a derogatory term and CBP does not condone its use,\u201d <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/border-patrol-agents-tonk-usage-emails-messages-released_n_65cbcfffe4b065628a611059\" target=\"_blank\">the Huffington Post reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>In one text chain, an agent referred to \u201csnatch &amp; grabs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think [the Border Patrol agents] only know one way to operate,\u201d an agent said in a text chain. \u201cSee bodies, chase bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unclear if agents texted any other slurs, as many phones have yet to be turned over.<\/p>\n<p>At a hearing last month, Frimpong weighed whether to hold the government in contempt for not complying with a court order requiring them to forensically image any cellphone used by an agent present at any of 15 identified operations.<\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department attorney told Frimpong that no personal phones had been imaged at that point, despite the fact that more than 800 officers indicated that they had used their personal phones during operations.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Immigration agents who descended on Los Angeles last summer referred to Latinos using slurs like \u201ctonk\u201d and \u201cwet,\u201d according to body camera footage and text messages detailed in a court filing asking a federal judge to bar agents from making stops based on racial profiling. After a June raid at Home Depot in Hollywood, body&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/b31e1ed\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/8192x4301+0+582\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6f%2Fc4%2F4b3111b64f78bae86de3787d3696%2F1513307-me-ice-macarthur-park06-cs.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}