No story defined 2025 more than the aggressive, unprecedented immigration raids that unleashed chaos across U.S. cities. And no journalistic enterprise covered the roots of the raids with more foresight, forceful reporting or creativity than the partnership between CalMatters, Evident Media and Bellingcat.
Together, the collaboration produced three films for YouTube and vertical video that:
Exposed the government’s justification for the raids as patently false, laying bare the racial profiling at the heart of the operations. The Border Patrol said it had a targeted list of criminals for its proof-of-concept raid in rural California, but we obtained agency records that showed it had no record on 77 of the 78 people it arrested.
Introduced the nation to Border Patrol leader Gregory Bovino, who would become the high-profile architect of the national raids. Our in-depth interview with Bovino, then a little-known figure, showed his false statements, aggressiveness and bravado. Months later, similar actions led Bovino to be relieved of his duties when his agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Revealed the legally questionable tactics being used by immigration agents in the beginning days of the Los Angeles raids. As masked agents roved the city, our open-source analysis – combined with exclusive interviews with recently detained and deported immigrants – showed a pattern of warrantless arrests and extraordinary detention conditions.
Identified a number of Border Patrol agents who were repeatedly involved in violent altercations with immigrants and protesters across multiple cities. The agents’ masks had shielded them from accountability, but our dogged OSINT work allowed us to show that agents had followed Bovino from city to city. Once hit with a judge’s order curtailing their actions, they would move to the next location, increasing the intensity of their use of force as they went along.
We packaged these findings, and many others, into urgent, state-of-the-art films with top-notch storytelling and captivating art that drew millions of viewers, shaped the bedrock public understanding of the raids and led to court injunctions demanding they cease.
