ACLU: Federal agents used racial slurs to target Latinos in SoCal stops
LOS ANGELES (KESQ) - Federal agents allegedly used racial slurs to target Latinos while carrying out an ongoing campaign of "suspicionless and discriminatory'' immigration enforcement stops in the Los Angeles area, according to a federal court filing obtained today.
The allegations came in a motion for a preliminary injunction in the closely watched Vasquez Perdomo vs. Noem case, asking that a federal court block agents from conducting what the plaintiffs contend are warrantless stops targeting "people who appear Latino and low-income or working-class,'' according to the document.
According to the ACLU of Southern California, the stops across the Central District of California have continued even after last summer's street raids ceased.
"We're (still) doing the same thing just with a different name,'' a federal agent admitted in a deposition cited in the motion filed Monday in Los Angeles federal court.
In a video also discussed in the filing, one U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent said to another: "Yeah, just plug us in wherever you see some tonks,'' while other agents guessed whether people were "wet'' simply based on appearance.
According to the ACLU, "tonks'' is a derogatory and violent term understood to refer to the sound of a flashlight striking a migrant's head.
"Wet'' is short for "wetback" and is a racist slur historically directed at Mexican and other Latino immigrants crossing the Rio Grande.
In response to the suit, the DHS insisted federal agents are engaging in protecting American citizens.
"Our agents are focused on protecting the American people -- not entertaining performative outrage,'' according to a statement from DHS. "Where is the media's outrage for Angel families who lost a loved one to illegal alien crime?''
"Angel families'' refers to the family members of those killed by undocumented individuals present in the United States.
U.S. District Judge Maame E. Frimpong, who is overseeing the case, set a Sept. 24 status conference to discuss the ACLU's motion.
The filing includes body camera footage and depositions of federal agents as part of evidence ordered by Frimpong after the U.S. Supreme Court stayed an earlier temporary restraining order in the case last September.
Plaintiffs argue the Constitution prohibits law enforcement from using race as a substitute for individualized suspicion. The motion alleges the stops violated both the Fourth Amendment and the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection.
"Our communities have been denouncing foul play from day one,'' Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, a plaintiff in the case, said in a statement Tuesday. "The evidence doesn't lie: these arrests were never about safety, they were about skin color. We repudiate this racial profiling in the strongest terms -- our communities deserve better.''
Residents, workers and advocacy groups sued DHS in July 2025, alleging unconstitutional stop and detention practices by agents tied to arbitrary enforcement quotas. The judge initially issued a temporary restraining order limiting certain enforcement actions. However, in August 2025, the Supreme Court granted the government's request to stay that order while litigation proceeds, allowing the challenged practices to continue.
"A year ago, farm workers across California were terrorized by brutal and unconstitutional raids based on racial and class profiling,'' said Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers, also a plaintiff. "Today, the fear left behind by those raids continues. Farm workers go to work afraid they may not come home, even as they put food on all of our tables. America owes the workers who feed it much better. The workers who feed this country deserve so much better."
