In October 1988, a Federal Court made a ruling on the "Taco Circuit" or the "Tortilla Circuit" class action discrimination. that was favorable to the plaintiffs. The case centered on Hispanic agents placed on temporary assignment to a series of dead-end jobs in dreary Southwest outposts of the United States, due to "the needs of the bureau". Some of these assignments like tedious "Title III" wiretap monitoring or hazardous undercover work which were of little importance when it came to promotions within the agency. . The problem with these assignments were: 1) Shifts were 12 hours in rotation "on and off", 30 to 90 days in duration 2) The duty is not voluntary. Agents are assigned to the duty without regard to their present assignments 3) Agents assigned to Title III wiretaps are taken off of the active cases they have developed. Their own cases are reassigned to other agents and not returned to the agent who monitored the wiretap at the conclusion of the assignment 4) Title III wiretap assignments often take an agent away from his or her home office, which might be considered a hardship posting. Agents travel away from their families for long periods. Also, within FBI field offices, the most sought after assignment is as a "case agent" on an investigation that nets arrests and convictions, "closed cases" and informant development, where Hispanic Special Agents were few and far between to be found. Case agents who build up their "numbers" - arrests - get praise, promotions, and monetary awards from Washington. Moreover the courts found the "taco circuit" made agents unavailable for in-service and special training opportunities , and that the "needs of the bureau" was a highly subjective term and that such things as transfers are "highly susceptible to bargaining with superiors and subjective determinations."
