JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
There is new evidence that federal immigration agents in Los Angeles used derogatory and racial slurs to describe Latinos who they were targeting in recent immigration raids. The slurs are heard in body cam footage that is now a part of a federal lawsuit accusing ICE and Border Patrol agents of racial profiling as they search for immigrants to detain. NPR's Adrian Florido joins us now - and a note that we will hear some of those slurs in this segment. Hi, Adrian.
ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: Hi, Juana.
SUMMERS: So these body cam videos from immigration agents - tell us what they show.
FLORIDO: Well, the videos are from last year, and they show the agents carrying out the aggressive immigration raids that have become a hallmark of President Trump's deportation campaign. But these videos also capture agents' conversations inside their vehicles as they're driving around LA looking for people to arrest, and you hear them using slurs to talk about the people they're targeting.
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UNIDENTIFIED AGENT #1: Jesus [expletive] Christ, dude. I think they did get quite a few.
FLORIDO: In this video, two agents are talking about an operation that has just finished.
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UNIDENTIFIED AGENT #1: I checked one guy's ID.
UNIDENTIFIED AGENT #2: Did you?
UNIDENTIFIED AGENT #1: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED AGENT #2: There was a guy. I'm pretty sure he was w**. He was just sitting in that minivan.
FLORIDO: He says, there was a guy - I'm pretty sure he was w** - just sitting in that minivan. And w**, Juana, is short for w**back, a racial slur for immigrants from Mexico. And listen to how these agents in a different video talk about someone they've just spotted in a car.
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UNIDENTIFIED AGENT #3: There's one right there (laughter).
UNIDENTIFIED AGENT #4: OK, gray Tahoe. (Inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED AGENT #3: It looked like a t**k in the driver's seat.
UNIDENTIFIED AGENT #4: Probably was.
SUMMERS: Adrian, did I hear him there say t**k?
FLORIDO: Yeah, t**k is a term that immigration agents have been known to use for migrants. It refers to the sound of an agent's flashlight when it hits a migrant's head. In the past, Border Patrol supervisors have forbidden agents from using this term because it's derogatory. But t**k shows up several times in these body cam videos. In this video, two agents are speaking a - in a mix of Spanish and English, and they're celebrating having just gotten, quote, "a t**k."
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UNIDENTIFIED AGENT #5: Yeah, I got us un tonky (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED AGENT #6: I did.
UNIDENTIFIED AGENT #5: (Inaudible). How do you turn off the camera? How do you turn off the camera?
FLORIDO: The man arrested in that operation was later released. He was a U.S. citizen.
SUMMERS: And how have these videos come to light?
FLORIDO: Well, a federal judge in Los Angeles ordered the government to turn agent body cam video and text messages over to the ACLU as part of its lawsuit against ICE and Border Patrol. Last summer, the ACLU and other groups sued alleging that agents are racially profiling, stopping and arresting people just because they look Latino. I spoke with Mayra Joachin, one of the ACLU's attorneys in this case.
MAYRA JOACHIN: We now know the only evidence that those agents used to stop an individual was to racially profile and to identify people on the street who appear to look Latino and working-class.
FLORIDO: The government has argued in court that its agents decide who to stop based on many factors and say they don't racially profile. But Joachin says these videos and other evidence that they've submitted in this case show that agents really are just choosing people who look Latino.
SUMMERS: Now, Adrian, if I recall correctly, this case did come before the Supreme Court last year, and the court's conservative majority sided with the Trump administration. Is that right?
FLORIDO: Yeah, that's right. The high court ruling lifted some temporary restrictions that the LA judge had placed on ICE and Border Patrol. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that agents are allowed to use race as one among other factors. That Supreme Court ruling, though, did not stop this lawsuit from moving forward. And the ACLU says these videos strengthen their case that race is the main factor agents are using, and they want the judge in LA to order agents to stop using race and to document why they are stopping people.
SUMMERS: And last thing, Adrian, how has the Trump administration responded to this new evidence?
FLORIDO: The Department of Homeland Security sent me a very short statement that said, in part, quote, "our agents are focused on protecting the American people, not entertaining performative outrage."
SUMMERS: NPR's Adrian Florido, thank you.
FLORIDO: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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