Federal immigration agents carrying out enforcement operations in Los Angeles last summer used racial slurs to refer to Latinos, body camera footage and text messages released in court filings appear to show.
The ACLU of Southern California included blurred and redacted body camera footage and forensically recovered text messages as part of a motion for preliminary injunction seeking to end what they call federal agents’ pattern of “race-based profiling” when conducting stops as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown.
“Yeah, just plug us in wherever you see some tonks and we’ll jump out,” one agent can be heard saying in a video released in court.
“Tonk” is considered to be a derogatory term used by agents that denotes the sound an immigrant’s head makes when struck by a baton or a flashlight.
“There was a guy, I’m pretty sure he’s wet he was just sitting in that minivan,” an agent can be heard saying in another video, using a term that is allegedly a shortened version of a slur to refer to Latinos.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not respond when asked by ABC News if using slurs violates its policies, instead saying that “our agents are focused on protecting the American people — not entertaining performative outrage.”
“Where is the media’s outrage for Angel families who lost a loved one to illegal alien crime?” the DHS spokesperson said.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit last year on behalf of several individuals, including US citizens, who were stopped, questioned, and in some cases detained by immigration agents in the Central District of California.
US District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong issued a temporary restraining order barring stops based solely on the basis of race, but the Supreme Court later lifted those restrictions.
“This filing should shock the conscience,” Mayra Joachim, deputy director of immigrants’ rights at ACLU SoCal, said of the new court documents. “Evidence gathered from the government has confirmed what our communities have known all along: immigration officers are flagrantly violating the law by detaining people without justification and often primarily because of the color of their skin.”
In addition to body camera footage, ACLU attorneys filed copies of text message chains between agents.
“Some of these people are stupid. Why would you post on social media that you’re wet,” one agent asked, according to the filing.
“Btw tonks everywhere selling food for the 4th festivities in long beach right now,” another added later, per the filing.
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