DHS agent admits Border Patrol at Newsom event was a political stunt, texts reveal
A federal immigration agent has admitted that the moment Border Patrol agents swarmed an event hosted by California Gov. Gavin Newsom last summer was “purely political,” according to newly released court filings.
Newsom’s rally at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, on August 14 was held to introduce his “Election Rigging Response Act,” a reaction to Republican gerrymandering in Texas with a parallel operation in the Golden State to redraw its own electoral maps to cancel out any advantage.
As the governor spoke, “dozens of armed federal agents amassed in the adjacent streets wearing masks, helmets and camouflage,” The Los Angeles Times reported at the time. Newsom and the city’s mayor, Karen Bass, subsequently alleged that Border Patrol’s presence had been a deliberate intimidation tactic.
Then-Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin rejected the claim, insisting that the agents present were “focused on enforcing the law, not on [Newsom].”
However, the new filings submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California appear to contradict her explanation, with a Homeland Security Investigations agent saying in a sworn deposition that their presence “seemed to be purely political.”
“It did not seem like there was a good operational basis to be doing that,” they said, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. “To me, it appeared political.”
The agent also referred to the episode as a “stunt” in a text message thread and wrote to a colleague: “We’re told to assist with targeted enforcement… That is not target enforcement. That was just a political agenda.”
Newsom has already responded to the admissions, writing on X: “Trump’s own immigration agents admit it: they were ordered to target last summer’s redistricting rally in LA.
“Use federal law enforcement to target political opponents. Politicize the Department of Justice. Defy court orders. That is blatant authoritarianism, ordered by Trump.”
A DHS spokesperson told The Independent: “The only publicity stunt the media should concern themselves with is an American governor in an American city holding a press conference to protect criminal illegals at the expense of Americans.”
The lawsuit in question was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, Public Counsel, and other legal groups on behalf of several plaintiffs who argue that their arrests last year were illegal and part of a broader “pattern and practice of flouting the Constitution and federal law in connection with ongoing immigration raids in the Los Angeles area.”
According to The Daily Beast, the filings also include testimony from a Border Patrol agent who reveals how haphazardly the federal agents selected their targets, choosing to raid a car wash in Whittier, California, on June 18 last year after simply searching Google for likely facilities nearby.
They also contain body camera footage and texts capturing casual slurs used by agents against migrants, including “wet” for “wetback” and “tonk,” which reportedly refers to the sound made when cracking a flashlight against a suspect’s skull.
The president’s illegal immigration crackdown was particularly intense in Los Angeles last summer, with residents living in fear, protesters taking to the streets to voice their opposition and President Donald Trump responding by sending in the National Guard and U.S. Marines.
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