Border Patrol raided a Dwelling Depot and different areas in Sacramento on Thursday in what gave the impression to be a closely orchestrated operation supposed to ship a message that the Trump Administration wouldn’t again down on immigration enforcement, regardless of authorized blockades.
Whereas the raids passed off miles from the state capitol grounds, Greg Bovino, the U.S. Border chief of the El Centro sector who has been main operations in Southern California, recorded a video in entrance of the statehouse shortly after.
“There is no such thing as a such factor as a sanctuary metropolis. There’s no such factor as a sanctuary state,” Bovino posted on X, in a produced video that includes the state capitol constructing and freeway indicators studying Sacramento. “That is how and why we safe the homeland for Ma and Pa America. We’ve obtained your again, whether or not it’s right here in Sacramento or nationwide, we’re right here and we’re not going wherever.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s workplace instantly blasted the sweeps.
“The Border Patrol ought to do their jobs — on the border— as an alternative of continuous their tirade statewide of unlawful racial profiling and unlawful arrests,” mentioned Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson Newsom.
On Wednesday, Newsom had railed in opposition to Trump’s immigration crackdown throughout a press convention at a Downey Memorial Christian Church, the place brokers swarmed and arrested a patron in June. Parishoners on the church are nonetheless shaken, and one woman he met was carrying round her passport.
“She’s right here legally. She’s carrying her passport,” he mentioned. “That’s Trump’s America, 2025.”
The Sacramento enforcement got here after a federal decide in Los Angeles on Friday blocked brokers from utilizing racial profiling to hold out warrantless arrests which have upended lots of of lives in immigrant communities all through Southern California. And it passed off in an space that, together with the Central Valley and a big swath of Northern California, is underneath an identical preliminary injunction stemming from illegal raids launched by Bovino in January, concentrating on farmworkers and laborers in Kern County.
The Division of Homeland Safety mentioned 11 undocumented immigrants have been arrested through the operation together with, Javier Dimas-Alcantara, who they mentioned is “harmful serial drug abuser” who “has been booked into jail 67 occasions.”
“You wouldn’t need this man to be your neighbor,” mentioned DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “And but, politicians like Gavin Newsom defend criminals who terrorize American communities and demonize legislation enforcement who defend those self same communities.”
Bovino, who has been a key determine within the raids throughout Southern California and is called in each lawsuit, mentioned on X operations unfolded in Los Angeles and Sacramento on Thursday. One other particular person, he mentioned, was arrested for impeding and or assaulting a federal officer.
Based mostly on movies posted Thursday, that man seems to be Jose Castillo Jr., who was on his option to work as an HVAC repairman within the Sacramento space when he stopped on the residence enchancment retailer. His spouse, Andrea Castillo, mentioned he’s a hard-working, household man who would “not be out instigating.”
Her practically 3-minute lengthy video of Castillo Jr. being arrested circulated on social media. Within the video, an agent could be seen standing as much as Andrea pointing a sprig can at her. “Get the f— out of the way in which,” he says.
Her husband, a 31-year-old American citizen, seems within the background scuffling with a number of different brokers on the bottom. She runs with the brokers in direction of him.
“He’s a U.S. citizen!” she screamed time and again.
Brokers pinned him to the bottom and he was minimize on his face and bleeding, she mentioned. She mentioned she might hear him say, “I can’t breathe.”
The scene regarded much like different raids that performed out in Los Angeles throughout June.
“His brother is an energetic U.S. Marine. He’s serving the nation and have a look at what they’re doing to this nation, to him,” he mentioned.
Neither the Division of Homeland Safety or U.S. Customs and Border Safety responded to requests for remark about Castillo. However Border Patrol advised Fox information that that they had surveilled areas in Sacramento and ran license plates for 2 days earlier than executing the arrests. A few of these plates got here again as owned by beforehand deported unlawful immigrants.
Giselle Garcia, a member of NorCal Resist, a volunteer mutual help group that has been responding to the raids mentioned she was skeptical of the accusations.
“We’ve got a protracted sample of false allegations made by ICE and CBP that it’s both immigrants or witness that perception the violence, which later grow to be false,” she mentioned.
Elizabeth Strater, a nationwide vp of United Farm Staff, mentioned her workplace has been flooded with calls concerning the Dwelling Depot raid. The group is amongst a number of plaintiffs that introduced a lawsuit in opposition to Border Patrol for raids in Kern county in January. In April a federal decide discovered the company engaged in a “sample and follow” of unconstitutionally detaining folks with out cheap suspicion they’re right here illegally and ordered them to cease.
Strater mentioned she noticed a video Thursday morning through which she described two giant federal brokers kneeling on a small girl “who’s face down, whereas she struggles.”
“There’s no purpose for that type of brutality,” she mentioned. “That’s simply brutalizing a group … it’s disgusting.”
She mentioned they’re working to find out if Border Patrol was violating the phrases of the decide’s order.
Sacramento Metropolis Councilmember Caity Maple, whose district borders the Dwelling Depot, mentioned she was shocked to be taught of the raid, noting that she’d “by no means heard of Border Patrol in Sacramento” — which is greater than 480 miles from the Mexican border.
Maple mentioned legislation enforcement was not notified of any operations prematurely.
“We’re fairly far inland. We’re not near the border of both Mexico or Canada,” she mentioned. “For me, it was shock and concern of how do these people who are supposed to shield our borders ostensibly find yourself in a spot like Sacramento?”
