The labor union alleges Border Patrol agents violated a court order by detaining 11 people without reasonable suspicion at a Sacramento Home Depot parking lot.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the United Farm Workers alleging Border Patrol agents violated a court order when they detained several people in a South Sacramento Home Depot parking lot in July.
The ACLU and UFW, in the lawsuit, said Border Patrol agents in South Sacramento violated an Eastern District of California preliminary injunction that was issued in April, which instructed them to stop detaining people without reasonable suspicion and to stop warrantless arrests without assessing whether the person is a flight risk.
Gregory Bovino, the United States Border Patrol Chief for the El Centro Sector, announced the arrests at the Home Depot parking lot back in July through an Instagram reel post. He described the actions as a Title 8 mission.
David Kim, an assistant chief patrol agent with U.S. Border Patrol, told ABC10 in July that of the 11 in custody, three had a prior felony conviction, including child molestation.
He added that one person they arrested, identified as Carlos Mata, ran away and forced entry into an apartment with two people inside. Kim said one resident was assaulted. The residents later saw a Border Patrol officer and helped point them to the person they later arrested, Kim said.
The lawsuit accuses the DHS leadership of three major violations. First, they say the agency’s guidance to agents remains inadequate, allowing profiling based on broad traits like skin color or occupation rather than clear evidence. Second, agents allegedly conducted a mass raid at a Sacramento Home Depot in July, stopping and arresting people without individualized suspicion — just days after another court had barred similar tactics elsewhere. Third, the documentation from those arrests was described as incomplete and boilerplate, falling short of court-ordered record-keeping standards.
The lawsuit also alleged that Border Patrol agents detained Valley High School senior Selvin Osbeli Mejia Diaz, who was let into the U.S. after fleeing violence in his home country as an unaccompanied minor and was in compliance with the ongoing immigration process. The lawsuit adds that Diaz was not even in the Home Depot parking lot but was at a nearby shopping center heading into a Ross clothing store.
ABC10 reached out to DHS for comment on the lawsuit but has not heard back.