“Operation Return to Sender” Brings Lawsuits

Operation Return to Sender is yielding some unexpected fan hate mail from the United Farm Workers. 

The organization, plus five San Joaquin Valley residents, are taking up (legal) arms and suing the Department of Homeland Security and US Border Patrol for their actions in the January raid. 

He said, she said: Border Patrol says Operation Return to Sender was intended to catch criminal undocumented immigrants. They describe the operation as targeted toward those who traffic dangerous substances and said they attempted Transnational Criminal Organizations’ transport routes. They say 78 immigrants, including a child rapist, were arrested. 

The ACLU complaint alleges that agents did not have warrants or consent for all searches they conducted, violating the Fourth Amendment. It also alleges that agents were coercive and deceptive to detained workers, violating the Fifth Amendment right to due process. 

Casting a wide net: farm worker advocates estimate nearly 200 Latino farmworkers and day laborers were detained. The legal complaint noted that Border Patrol agents targeted Latino neighborhoods and businesses where farm workers gather, and stopped people on the stretch of California Route 99 that farmworkers take to work. 

Soundbite: “I hope our rights are protected so that all workers can work and live in peace.” – Plaintiff Maria Hernandez Espinoza in the lawsuit