This story has been updated with new information about events Thursday evening.
Stockton Police Department officers wearing face shields and carrying batons guided white vans and other vehicles out of the Stockton Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and onto the road Thursday evening, hours after 12 people arrested in Sacramento had been held there, according to an attorney.
The police response capped a day of activity that stretched from Sacramento to Stockton, as ICE agents made arrests and protesters and immigration advocates followed the moving scene. It raised questions not only about federal law enforcement activity, but also about the role Stockton police played in the later protest.
Turmoil began about 8 a.m. Thursday, when masked federal immigration agents arrested 12 people at Home Depot on Florin Road in Sacramento, multiple outlets, including The Sacramento Bee, reported.
Officials said 11 undocumented migrants were arrested, according to news reports, along with one U.S. citizen they accused of obstructing officers.
By Thursday afternoon, most of the people detained were being held at an ICE field office on San Juan Avenue in Stockton, according to California Immigration Project attorney Sylvia Rodezno. Rodezno said she had spoken with two of the people arrested, and was awaiting calls from more from the field office’s lobby.
ICE spokesman Richard Beam didn’t immediately respond to emailed questions Thursday seeking to confirm how many people were arrested, their names and nationalities and the reasons for their arrests, why they were being held in Stockton, or where else they might be transferred.
A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Northern California region also did not immediately return a call seeking information.
About 4 p.m., a person was released from the Stockton building, sporting a black eye. They identified themselves as the U.S. citizen who had been arrested, but declined to provide their name or other comment.
Stockton’s ICE field office cannot jail people overnight, Rodezno said, and she believed those still in jail late Thursday would likely be transferred to jails in Bakersfield or Adelanto.
Thursday evening, a row of white vans as well as what appeared to be private cars and trucks, pulled away from the office at 603 San Juan Ave. It was unclear whether any of the detained people were inside.
Outside, about 11 protesters scattered across the sidewalk and roundabout holding signs and chanting. Stockton police shouted at the protesters to move as the vehicles pulled out.
Questions about ICE arrests
California officials immediately criticized the immigration activity in Stockton, which comes after weeks of tensions over ICE arrests and federal responses to protests across the state.
“I question the authority of U.S. Border Patrol operations in many of these enforcement actions,” California Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom said in a public letter to state Attorney General Rob Bonta on Thursday.
“As you are aware, Border Patrol operates within 100 miles of the U.S. border. Sacramento and Stockton are both at least 300 miles from the nearest border. Why are they assisting ICE? Is their participation legally authorized?”
Ransom urged the top prosecutor’s office to investigate the border agents’ involvement in ICE operations.
Rodezno said she was not aware of the Border Patrol presenting any arrest warrants during the Sacramento raid. At least some of those arrested were Mexican and Guatemalan, Rodezno said, but she had no further information about the group’s identities.
“We’re just trying to find the full names of those that are here. That’s the problem. As the attorney, to meet the person, you need the full name,” she said.
Rodezno said she believes Border Patrol agents made the arrests “arbitrarily and capriciously,” and were “racially profiling.”
“If you were at Home Depot, and you’re brown-skinned, you must be undocumented,” she said.
Stockton police arrive
Outside the Stockton facility, about eight protesters advocating for the group’s release were gathered with signs around 4 p.m.
“I’m tired of them kidnapping my community,” one protester, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, said. “Why are they acting like Nazis?”
A “mass protest” happened outside the jail earlier Thursday, according to Josh Lind, an employee at the field office who declined to share his title.
The protest later died down – possibly because, Lind believed, people realized facility employees were trying to “do the right thing,” he said.
But later in the evening, local police arrived.
The Stockton Police Department sent officers after receiving a report about 6 p.m. that about 20 protesters were blocking exits and entrances, according to a statement a police spokesman provided to Stocktonia by text Thursday evening.
Officers in a police helicopter confirmed that “protesters (were) between two entrances/exits with several of them blocking the driveways.”
By the time a sergeant and eight officers arrived at 7:15 p.m., only eight protesters remained, officials said.
“Officers stood by to ensure the driveway stayed clear and vehicles could exit,” authorities said. Police then left.
People at the scene said no protesters were blocking the vehicles from exiting. One demonstrator, who declined to be named out of fear of retaliation, said: “I don’t think that was ever the plan because we didn’t have enough people.”
Earlier this year, Stockton police publicly announced that officers would not make it any easier for federal agents to round up anyone for deportation, as many local law enforcement agencies faced the prospect of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
“We take pride in our approach to not enforcing immigration laws. We believe doing so would undermine the trust and safety we have worked hard to build within our community,” the department had said in a statement. “Our focus remains committed to individual relationship policing and ensuring everyone’s well-being and security, regardless of immigration status.”
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