‘Pretty sure he’s wet:’ Immigration agents used racial slurs during LA sweeps, court records show

Cal Matters reports that U.S. immigration officers used racial slurs, including “wet” and “tonks,” to identify people to target while sweeping through Los Angeles last year, according to text messages cited in a new court filing asking a federal judge there to bar agents from racial profiling. 

Plaintiffs in the Vasquez Perdomo vs. Noem case filed a motion for a preliminary injunction yesterday, arguing that agents had conducted an “ongoing campaign of suspicionless and discriminatory detentive stops” across the Central District of California even after the high-profile street raids of summer 2025 had ceased.

The filing includes evidence from months of discovery, including body camera footage and depositions of agents, ordered by U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong after the U.S. Supreme Court stayed an earlier temporary restraining order in the case last September.