09-04-2025
Facts versus statement: New findings on January Border Patrol Operation in Kern County show agents didn't go after said ‘targets'
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — It's been months since that Border Patrol operation here in Bakersfield, which led to 78 arrests.
Despite the agency repeatedly stating it was an operation targeting criminals, a new investigation shows it wasn't as 'targeted' as advertised.
Reporters are saying this operation was unique because agents targeted locations popular to farm workers, not individuals based on criminal records.
'Scared, because a lot of my family works in the fields,' Sandra Sandoval Sanchez of Edison Citrus Ranch, told us back in January.
Following one of the first raids, Candy Garcia, employee of Chevron that was raided, recalled, 'If they looked Hispanic or like they worked in the fields or a little dirty, they would ask for their paperwork.'
On January 7, 65 agents from the El Centro Sector of U.S. Customs and Border Protection — or CBP — began Operation Return to Sender in Kern County.
CBP said it arrested 78 undocumented people with criminal records from Central, South America and China…including sex offenders, drug traffickers and those with DUI convictions.
A months-long investigation by CalMatters, Evident and Bellingcat shows it's not that straightforward.
'This is not what that operation was. This was people getting up early to go to work, to do the kind of jobs that personally, I don't want to,'said CalMatters Investigative Reporter, Sergio Olmos. 'We got data from Customs and Border Protection that shows 77 out of the 78 people arrested, Border Patrol had no knowledge of criminal immigration history.'
Simply put, prior to contact, agents did not know anything about these individuals. The data shows, only one arrestee had a prior removal order.
17 News spoke with Sergio Olmos of CalMatters, who in February interviewed El Centro's Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino.
'We had a pre-determined list of targets, many of which, as you said, were prior deports, already had immigration history, criminal history,' Bovino told Olmos during the interview.
Olmos noted, 'If they had that list, and we've not seen the list like that, if they had it, they didn't go after them.'
Olmos said an analysis of videos posted on social media shows CBP targeted specific areas.
'Even if you look at just the map, they didn't go to certain areas to try to target fentanyl dealers. They were going to places where people gas up and get breakfast to go to the fields or they're coming back from the fields,' he detailed.
Including, most notably, the Chevron on Seventh Standard Road and Merle Haggard Drive.
'None of the other stores got hit except this one, because this is the bigger one. This is the one where almost everybody comes,' said Garcia, one of the employees.
Since the start of the three-day operation, Bovino's narrative has not changed.
'Every single one of the 78 we arrested were criminals. When you cross the border illegally, USC 1325, illegal entry into the United States, they're all criminals. Let's get that one out of the way here,' the chief said.
'The way he's thinking about it is there is no difference between the field worker and the fentanyl dealer, and I asked three times, is there no priority for your agency to go after the fentanyl dealer or the laborer,' Olmos stated.
We also asked more specifically about Chief Bovino — the man in the hot seat.
Olmos described Bovino as an agent who praises Operation Wetback, the President Eisenhower-led largest deportation in American history.
Recently, Olmos said, Bovino has been releasing fictionalized portrayals of migrants committing crime once they cross the border.
'He has five agents, five federal agents, where all they do is make videos. That's all they do. That's according to Border Patrol,' Olmos said. '[During the interview] they pushed back on this and said they're not really fictional.'
Olmos also touched on the influence of Bovino.
'There's leaders, and leaders set the tone for the whole organization,' Olmos said.
He continued, 'That tone is being set by Chief Agent Bovino. That is the mission that Border Patrol is, by Gregory Bovino.'
Citing a specific anecdote from his time visiting the southern Border, Olmos recalled, one of the agents referred to those crossing the border as 'migrants.'
However, once Olmos mentioned Bovino calls them 'illegals,' the agent then immediately started calling them 'illegals' as well.
Olmos also said Bovino is an agent who praises Operation Wetback, the President Eisenhower-led largest deportation in American history.
'He is a student of that kind of history, he is a fan of that kind of operation,' Olmos added.
The ACLU has sued the agency for unlawful practices during the operation, like racial profiling.
As part of that lawsuit, the group has asked for a restraining order to stop CBP from conducting similar raids within California while the lawsuit is being heard.
Oliver Ma, an attorney on the case, said that request is still pending.
Since January, CBP has declined numerous interview requests, including today.
The agency said it cannot comment due to the ongoing litigation.
To which Olmos responded, 'You must still talk about the public operations you're doing. They're still a public agency.'
to watch the full CalMatters investigation.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
