U.S. Border Patrol agents indiscriminately stopped and detained scores of people in California based on appearance, held them incommunicado and coerced them into waiving their rights to appear before a judge, according to a proposed class action suit filed this week by the United Farm Workers and other plaintiffs.
The suit was brought by attorneys from NLJ 500 firm Keker, Van Nest & Peters and the American Civil Liberties Union in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Fresno. It alleges agents violated the constitutional rights of people, including U.S. citizens and lawful residents, during “Operation Return to Sender,” a week-long sweep in January in Kern County, a farming region some 300 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border.