By admin 
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that newly released court records support his assertion that federal immigration agents’ appearance outside a pro-redistricting rally he held last year in Los Angeles was politically motivated.
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Last August, Newsom launched his Yes on 50 campaign to successfully redraw California’s congressional districts at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in the Little Tokyo neighborhood. During the rally, federal immigration agents, led by then-Border Patrol Commander-At-Large Gregory Bovino, assembled outside the center and arrested a fruit seller.
Newsom has repeatedly invoked the agents’ presence outside the rally as an example of federal overreach in the year since as he called President Donald Trump a “dictator” clinging to power.
The ACLU of Southern California and other legal groups included text messages between two federal agents and a sworn deposition from one of the agents in their in an ongoing lawsuit challenging immigration raids in the Central District of California.
At the time of the rally, federal authorities has sent a surge of National Guardsmen and federal immigration agents into communities up and down the state as Homeland Security and White House officials ordered increased arrests of suspected undocumented migrants for their eventual deportation.
According to the texts, Bovino ordered agents to march from a nearby federal building to the rally on Aug. 14, 2025, where they “arrested a couple (of) people outside and just stood around to get media attention.” In addition to Newsom, the rally was also attended by other prominent Democrats like U.S. Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla.
“They essentially raided the Newsom press conferences,” the agent wrote, adding a laughing emoji. Both the sender and recipient’s names were redacted.
The same agent complained that their team had been pulled off of raiding Home Depot parking lots and car washes to “run this stunt” at the rally.
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“We’re told to assist with targeted enforcement. That is not target enforcement. That was just a political agenda,” the agent wrote.
In a statement, Newsom said the agents’ texts proved they were ordered to target his rally, calling it a “move right out of the dictator’s playbook” and “an abuse of power.”
“They weren’t chasing dangerous criminals or doing targeted enforcement — their bosses wanted a stunt,” he said. “The federal government should never be used as a weapon against political opponents or their families.”
Neither the U.S. Department of Homeland Security nor Border Patrol responded to requests for comment.
In an X post, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the agent “said no such thing” about being ordered to target Newsom’s rally.
“Enforcing immigration laws passed by Congress is not ‘terrorizing’ the community. It’s upholding the Rule of Law,” he wrote.
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The Bee’s Mathew Miranda contributed to this story.