ICE agents allegedly used slurs to describe Latinos during LA immigration raids last summer

Body camera footage and text messages appear to show federal immigration agents using racial slurs to describe Latinos during enforcement operations in Los Angeles last summer, according to ABC News. The material was submitted as part of an ACLU of Southern California court filing.

The ACLU included the blurred and redacted footage, along with forensically recovered text messages, in a motion for a preliminary injunction. The group is seeking to stop what it describes as a pattern of race-based profiling by federal agents during stops connected to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.

One agent is heard on video saying, “Yeah, just plug us in wherever you see some tonks and we’ll jump out.” According to the outlet, “tonk” is considered a derogatory term used by some agents that refers to the sound an immigrant’s head makes when struck by a baton or flashlight.

Additional recordings and messages included in the court filing

In a separate video included in the filing, cited by ABC News, an agent is heard saying, “There was a guy, I’m pretty sure he’s wet he was just sitting in that minivan.” The term used is described as an alleged shortened version of a slur referring to Latinos.

The Department of Homeland Security did not directly answer when asked whether the use of such language violates its policies. A DHS spokesperson instead told ABC News, “our agents are focused on protecting the American people — not entertaining performative outrage.” Separately, the FBI’s role in probing ICE incidents has also come under scrutiny in recent months.

The spokesperson also said, “Where is the media’s outrage for Angel families who lost a loved one to illegal alien crime?” The ACLU filed the underlying lawsuit last year on behalf of several people, including U.S. citizens, who say they were stopped, questioned, and in some cases detained by immigration agents in the Central District of California. The new filing includes footage and text records the group says were obtained from the government during the case.

U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong had issued a temporary restraining order that barred agents from making stops based solely on race. The Supreme Court later lifted that order.

Mayra Joachim, deputy director of immigrants’ rights at ACLU SoCal, told the outlet that the filing “should shock the conscience.” She said, “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.” The controversy comes as the administration has also floated a plan to rebrand the agency’s image.

The filing also includes text message exchanges between agents. In one message, an agent allegedly wrote, “Some of these people are stupid. Why would you post on social media that you’re wet.” In another message sent later, an agent wrote, “Btw tonks everywhere selling food for the 4th festivities in long beach right now.”