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A recent Border Patrol raid at a Home Depot parking lot in the south Sacramento area broke a court order, according to a newly filed court motion. | PREVIOUS COVERAGE ABOVE | Florin Road Home Depot raid | CBP boasts capturing serious criminal offenderThe documents also claim an 18-year-old high school student who was walking to a nearby Ross clothing store across the street was swept up in the raid. On July 17, masked Border Patrol agents conducted operations in Sacramento, leading to at least 11 arrests. At the time, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the arrests included a dangerous serial drug abuser and a dealer with 67 previous charges. In a motion filed Aug. 29, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and United Farm Workers (UFW) claim Border Patrol violated a court order during the Home Depot raid. The motion was filed as part of a previous case focused on a Kern County raid earlier this year. In April, a federal district court judge issued a preliminary injunction, preventing Border Patrol agents from conducting stops without reasonable suspicion that the person is unlawfully in the country. Read the full filing here.According to the latest motion, ACLU and UFW claim, “…Border Patrol agents targeted individuals based on their apparent ethnicity, apparent occupation, and presence at or near a Home Depot with no reason to believe the specific individuals they stopped were in the country unlawfully, and arrested them without assessing flight risk.”The documents state that one of those arrested was 18-year-old Selvin Osbeli Mejia Diaz. In a declaration signed by Diaz, he said he was walking from home to the Ross store on Florin Road after his aunt gave him money to buy a new shirt and shoes. He said that while he was walking, a masked man “dressed like a soldier” jumped out of a Chevy Silverado truck and started chasing him. He said he ran for about 10 steps before the agent threw him to the ground, handcuffed him and put him in the truck. Diaz said the agent didn’t identify himself before driving him to the Stockton ICE processing center and taking his phone. He said that’s when he was placed in a cell with about 11 other people who were arrested in Sacramento. He said later that night, he was taken to a detention center in Sacramento, where he slept on the floor with an aluminum blanket. He said he kept asking to call his aunt, but agents wouldn’t let him until about two or three days later. According to his declaration, Diaz fled Guatemala when he was 16 years old and was seeking asylum. He said he was living in Sacramento with his aunt, uncle and cousins and was attending Valley High School. Diaz said he had never committed any crime and was concerned he would never see his family again. The Aug. 29 motion said that less than two weeks after the arrests in Sacramento, two of the 11 people arrested were still in ICE custody, leading the plaintiffs to believe the others had already been deported. RELATED | Leaders, officials react to Border Patrol operations in SacramentoThree days before the motion was filed, KCRA 3’s Ashley Zavala spoke with El Centro Sector Chief Gregory Bovino via Zoom for a one-on-one interview. Bovino has been outspoken about the raids and has warned there will be more. Zavala asked him how Border Patrol was deciding which communities to focus on. “The communities that we go into and our law enforcement actions, like the one you saw in Sacramento, are based on what we call targeted enforcements,” Bovino answered. “We have predefined targets that we look to create a law enforcement function to go after. That’s what we did in Sacramento. That particular operation, there were some individuals that we were after. We did end up apprehending several individuals that were aggravated felons and some folks that you would not want walking the streets of your community with impunity … We go where the threat takes us.” He said Californians should expect to continue to see Border Agents on the street until more “dangerous felons” are taken off the street. Bovino also said the state’s sanctuary legislation is tying the hands of law enforcement and limiting cooperation between local agencies and federal immigration officials. KCRA 3 also reached out to DHS for a comment on the recent motion and has not received a statement. For more of Ashley Zavala’s conversation with Chief Bovino, along with a sit-down interview with Senator Alex Padilla responding to recent raids, watch California Politics 360 at 8:30 a.m. Sunday.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
A recent Border Patrol raid at a Home Depot parking lot in the south Sacramento area broke a court order, according to a newly filed court motion.
| PREVIOUS COVERAGE ABOVE | Florin Road Home Depot raid | CBP boasts capturing serious criminal offender
The documents also claim an 18-year-old high school student who was walking to a nearby Ross clothing store across the street was swept up in the raid.
On July 17, masked Border Patrol agents conducted operations in Sacramento, leading to at least 11 arrests. At the time, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the arrests included a dangerous serial drug abuser and a dealer with 67 previous charges.
In a motion filed Aug. 29, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and United Farm Workers (UFW) claim Border Patrol violated a court order during the Home Depot raid. The motion was filed as part of a previous case focused on a Kern County raid earlier this year. In April, a federal district court judge issued a preliminary injunction, preventing Border Patrol agents from conducting stops without reasonable suspicion that the person is unlawfully in the country.
Read the full filing here.
According to the latest motion, ACLU and UFW claim, “…Border Patrol agents targeted individuals based on their apparent ethnicity, apparent occupation, and presence at or near a Home Depot with no reason to believe the specific individuals they stopped were in the country unlawfully, and arrested them without assessing flight risk.”
The documents state that one of those arrested was 18-year-old Selvin Osbeli Mejia Diaz. In a declaration signed by Diaz, he said he was walking from home to the Ross store on Florin Road after his aunt gave him money to buy a new shirt and shoes. He said that while he was walking, a masked man “dressed like a soldier” jumped out of a Chevy Silverado truck and started chasing him. He said he ran for about 10 steps before the agent threw him to the ground, handcuffed him and put him in the truck.
Diaz said the agent didn’t identify himself before driving him to the Stockton ICE processing center and taking his phone. He said that’s when he was placed in a cell with about 11 other people who were arrested in Sacramento. He said later that night, he was taken to a detention center in Sacramento, where he slept on the floor with an aluminum blanket. He said he kept asking to call his aunt, but agents wouldn’t let him until about two or three days later.
According to his declaration, Diaz fled Guatemala when he was 16 years old and was seeking asylum. He said he was living in Sacramento with his aunt, uncle and cousins and was attending Valley High School. Diaz said he had never committed any crime and was concerned he would never see his family again.
The Aug. 29 motion said that less than two weeks after the arrests in Sacramento, two of the 11 people arrested were still in ICE custody, leading the plaintiffs to believe the others had already been deported.
RELATED | Leaders, officials react to Border Patrol operations in Sacramento
Three days before the motion was filed, KCRA 3’s Ashley Zavala spoke with El Centro Sector Chief Gregory Bovino via Zoom for a one-on-one interview. Bovino has been outspoken about the raids and has warned there will be more. Zavala asked him how Border Patrol was deciding which communities to focus on.
“The communities that we go into and our law enforcement actions, like the one you saw in Sacramento, are based on what we call targeted enforcements,” Bovino answered. “We have predefined targets that we look to create a law enforcement function to go after. That’s what we did in Sacramento. That particular operation, there were some individuals that we were after. We did end up apprehending several individuals that were aggravated felons and some folks that you would not want walking the streets of your community with impunity … We go where the threat takes us.”
He said Californians should expect to continue to see Border Agents on the street until more “dangerous felons” are taken off the street. Bovino also said the state’s sanctuary legislation is tying the hands of law enforcement and limiting cooperation between local agencies and federal immigration officials.
KCRA 3 also reached out to DHS for a comment on the recent motion and has not received a statement.
For more of Ashley Zavala’s conversation with Chief Bovino, along with a sit-down interview with Senator Alex Padilla responding to recent raids, watch California Politics 360 at 8:30 a.m. Sunday.
See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
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