A Nogales Border Patrol agent called the people he apprehends “disgusting subhuman s--- unworthy of being kindling for a fire” and asked the president to “PLEASE let us take the gloves off trump!,” federal prosecutors said in court documents.

The statements were made in a text message sent by Agent Matthew Bowen, 39, who is accused of knocking down a Guatemalan man with his Border Patrol vehicle on Dec. 3, 2017, and then lying in a report about the incident, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Tucson.

Prosecutors Lori Price and Monica Ryan are asking a judge to allow some of Bowen’s text messages to be used as evidence of his “great disdain” for the people he apprehends, which could shed light on his state of mind when he hit the man with his truck.

If a jury were to see the texts, defense lawyer Sean Chapman wrote that he would argue certain terms are “commonplace throughout the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, that it is part of the agency’s culture, and therefore says nothing about Mr. Bowen’s mind-set.”

The language in Bowen’s text messages, some of which “could be perceived as racist or offensive,” would not help a jury determine “whether he, on this occasion, set out to use excessive force to apprehend the alleged victim,” Chapman wrote.