A California man who says he was racially profiled by border patrol agents during a June stop told NBC affiliate KNBC on Monday that he now feels guilty for voting for President Donald Trump in the last presidential election.
“I truly believe I was targeted because of my race,” Jason Brian Gavidia told KNBC. “I believe I was racially profiled. I believe I was attacked because I was walking while brown. Where is the freedom? Where is the justice? We live in America.”
Gavidia is one of five people included in a class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Southern California, accusing the Trump administration of racially profiling individuals during immigration enforcement operations.
Last month, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to halt indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests across seven California counties. The administration, however, petitioned the Supreme Court last week to overturn that order.
Video footage from June 12, later published by the Los Angeles Times, shows two masked border patrol agents in sunglasses pushing Gavidia against a metal gated fence outside a tow yard.
“I am an American, bro,” Gavidia can be heard saying in the video. “What hospital were you born in?” one agent yells. “I don’t know, dawg,” Gavidia responds, before offering to show his ID.
The lawsuit claims that the border patrol agents twisted Gavidia’s arm during the public questioning and confiscated his phone.
The agents eventually let him go, but Gavidia says the incident left him traumatized. “Every time I see it on video, it’s like a bad memory that’s in my brain,” he told KNBC.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin has issued conflicting statements about the incident. In June, she told the LA Times that Gavidia had been “arrested” for assaulting border patrol agents.
When the Times noted that he had not been arrested, McLaughlin clarified that he had only been questioned and that it was his friend who had been taken into custody.
On Wednesday, McLaughlin sent HuffPost another statement claiming Gavidia “was arrested for assaulting a law enforcement officer and interfering with agents during their duties.” HuffPost is seeking further clarification.
Her statement to HuffPost also asserted that “any allegations that individuals have been ‘targeted’ by law enforcement because of their skin color are FALSE.”
Gavidia is among several Trump supporters caught up in the president’s strict immigration enforcement policies, despite voting for him. He told KNBC that he now regrets his vote, saying it “was a mistake” because Trump “ran on lies.”
“If this was going to happen, do you think we would have voted? We’re humans. We’re not going to destroy our community,” Gavidia said. “We’re not going to destroy our people.”
