Petition alleges rights abuses in raids

Rep. Waters and others are asking the U.N. to investigate immigration roundups.

- BY RACHEL URANGA

JULIE LEOPO For The Times TEAR GAS sends protesters running during a federal immigration raid in July.

Denouncing federal immigration raids as a form of "ethnic cleansing," Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and a group of U.S. citizens announced Monday that they were petitioning the United Nations to investigate the Trump administration sweeps for potential human rights violations.

Sitting beside famed civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, Waters told reporters that the crackdown was untenable and would tear the country apart if left unchecked.

"When people are targeted because of how they look or the language they speak, the government is absolutely failing," Waters said. "We cannot rely upon the administration to police itself."

Filed partly on behalf of four U.S. citizens, including a pregnant woman who was shackled and detained during one raid, the petition accuses federal agents of waging a campaign of "ethnic cleansing against Latino minorities in the United States," and calls on the U.N. Human Rights Council to appoint independent investigators to scrutinize "kidnapping arrests, prolonged detentions without due process of law and the brutal excessive use of force."