As a young immigration lawyer in California’s Central Valley, Matthew Barragan cut his teeth in defending the rights of poor workers facing deportation.
Ten and a half years later, he is in charge of civil surveillance at the Los Angeles Police Department at a time of growing concern about strengthening federal immigration enforcement.
For the record:
7:20am April 30, 2025, an earlier version of this article stated that Matthew Barragan is 51 years old. He is 39.
Barragan, 39, was appointed last month as an inspector for the LAPD. His office, independent of 8,700 directors, monitors complaints of illegal activities and conducts an internal review of police shootings, along with audits and investigations at the request of the Police Commission.
Activists have warned that the Trump administration has access to sensitive data collected by LAPD license plate leaders and other technologies, and said that Secretary Jim McDonnell’s past willingness to engage with immigration agents has been cited as a source of further concern.
On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to release a list of “sanctuary cities” that the White House “will pursue criminals to unlock American law enforcement,” and not cooperate with immigration agents.
McDonnell, who served as LA County Sheriff during Trump’s first term, said he handed over to federal authorities only the most dangerous incarcerated criminals for deportation in line with the law. He then pledged to honor long-standing LAPD rules that protect confidential information about witnesses and crime victims, as well as policies that prohibit arrests on immigration grounds alone.
The interface between the department and federal authorities is one of many issues that police commissions expect from Barragan to help with surveillance. Barragan, a relatively unknown before employment in the LAPD circle, was unanimously selected by a five-member private panel to replace Florence You, an office veteran who served as interim inspector general after Mark Smith departed last spring.
Barragan said his background as both a civil rights lawyer and a federal prosecutor defending the rights of those trampled upon by the criminal justice system and defending the rights of law enforcement officials discriminated by his department gives him a unique perspective on police issues.
He said he plans to spend his first few weeks at work, meeting the expectations of the community and department, looking for ways to bring more transparency to the office.
“It’s important that our community feels that these complaints, audits, or systematic issues will be addressed. We trust that it will be done through the perspectives of the diverse communities who live in this area,” he said.
Barragan said it was shaped by his upbringing in Delano, Kahn County town, where his family was active in the United Farmworker movement, which rebelled in rebellion against powerful Central Valley growers in the 1960s and ’70s.
At the same time, he recalled that socially conservative rural communities could become isolated places for young Latino people who emerged as gay people in the early days of life. He faced ridiculously because he “has different styles of talk and sexual orientation.” He eventually headed to university to earn his bachelor’s and law degree from UCLA.
He started out as an intern at the Latin civil rights organization, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and professionally began his career as a staff lawyer.
“I represented an individual who was completely identified in many ways,” Barragan said. “They came from my background. Like I said, sexual orientation, trans individuals – and I felt very comfortable working with that community.”
One of his early incidents was defending Professor Latina, who challenged discrimination against her tenure at school. He also filed a lawsuit against the Westminster Police Station on behalf of three Latino police officers, saying they were unfairly treated based on their ethnicity.
“I think we were able to signal Westminster that we need to make some kind of changes to the department,” Barragan said.
He was part of a team that successfully sued the Baldwin Park Police Department for violating the Trust Act, a state law of 2013 that prohibits police and sheriff officials from detaining potential deportation unless they are charged or convicted of a serious crime.
Barragan said he takes pride in overcoming early barriers to getting into the legal profession “where it was not considered to be intended for me.” He joined in 2017 as a federal prosecutor at the U.S. Lawyer’s Office in the Central District of California.
“To come to court and say ‘Matthew Barragan for the United States’ was a huge moment for me. The representative and my family’s gravity, my father had moved from Mexico, and my family worked outdoors. ”
Among other duties, he handled civil rights lawsuits. This includes chasing the San Luis Obispo County Jail System for issues related to the use of force and suicide prevention.
Barragan was impressed by his former US Atty, his boss at the time. E. Martin Estrada praised the handling of the incident, which “has had to be done with a lot of research work and delved into the issue and sustained.”
“He’s a great lawyer, but he’s also a true leader and someone who cares deeply about his community,” Estrada said.
Barragan also played an active role in the outreach efforts of the office community. This includes “United Abu Hate” educated people on how to report hate crimes, Estrada said.
In LAPD circles, the general position of inspectors is seen as a tough job of political and institutional knowledge to achieve results in departments that have long resisted external surveillance. The office is often referred to as the eyes and ears of the police commission.
Some past inspectors have faced accusations of department leadership of being too combative or comfortable. The office has conducted a wide range of audits of LAPD programs and practices, scrutinizing the highly deteriorated disciplinary system and in-field training programs for new executives, but has produced far fewer reports in recent years.
With less than an hour at his first police committee meeting late last month, longtime department observers rose up during public comment period and candidly demand that Barragan audit LAPD’s “If you see something, say something” program.
Police say the campaign helped keep the city safe, but it has attracted concerns from libertarian and Muslim groups. The citizens involved wanted the department’s new watchdog to know that the department had stopped publishing statistics about the program.
“Balaghan, you’re going to have to work on it and get it done,” the speaker said.
Barragan’s supporters say he fought for the benefit of a marginalized community all the time.
Thomas Senz, president and legal counsel for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said his former employees are well suited to handle the upcoming fight.
“It’s very important that people in a position like him know. [immigrant rights] And why do they have to be protected and protected in today’s national context,” Saenz said.
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