Activists say that a U.S. citizen observing the operation was among those arrested
“The Border Patrol should do their jobs – at the border – instead of continuing their tirade statewide of illegal racial profiling and illegal arrests,” Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, told Cal Matters.
While the Border Patrol can operate within 100 miles of any U.S. border, including the California coast and nearby cities, a federal judge held in April that the agency cannot conduct warrantless immigration stops throughout California’s Eastern District, which includes Sacramento.
Border agents arrested at least 11 people during a Thursday raid outside a northern California Home Depot — including a U.S. citizen who was volunteering as an observer, according to local activists.
The operation, which took place in the Sacramento area, nearly 600 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, is the latest show of force from the Border Patrol in the state, which joined a full-cavalry raid in a Los Angeles park earlier this month.
“There is no such thing as a sanctuary city,” Border Patrol El Centro sector chief Gregory Bovino said Thursday in a video filmed in front of the state capitol building, referring to jurisdictions that don’t voluntarily assist with federal immigration enforcement.
“There is no such thing as a sanctuary state,” Bovino added in the clip, which features images of masked agents arresting men, soundtracked by the Kanye West song “Power.”
At least 11 people unlawfully in the U.S. were arrested in the early-morning operation, according to the Department of Homeland Security, including an immigrant man officials said was a “serial criminal” with past charges including illegal entry, possession of marijuana for sale, and felony burglary.
Bovino, in the video, said the arrests included a man who appears to have past fentanyl trafficking charges, and an individual arrested for impeding or assaulting a federal officer
So only 2 of 11 were actually criminals, plus you illegally bagged 1 U.S. citizen. Major fail!
However, Andrea Castillo said her husband Jose Castillo is a U.S. citizen and was among those arrested.
Video shared with KCRA shows Andrea Castillo yelling at agents as a group of masked officers pile Jose into an unmarked black minivan.
“Leave him alone, he’s a U.S. citizen!” she can be heard saying.
In the footage, one of the agents threatens to mace Castillo, and later says, “Google me,” when she asks for his badge number.
During the exchange, agents say they are detaining Jose Castillo because they believe he slashed the tires on a federal vehicle.
The activist group NorCal Resist said Jose Castillo was volunteering on behalf of the organization to document the operation, but did not impede officers. The group added that he has since been released.
Local lawmakers are questioning whether the operation violated a recent court order. Assembly member Rhodesia Ransom, whose district includes nearby Stockton, has reportedly asked the state attorney general’s office to investigate if federal officers are running afoul of state and federal laws or the U.S. Constitution with the operations.
“The Border Patrol should do their jobs – at the border – instead of continuing their tirade statewide of illegal racial profiling and illegal arrests,” Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, told Cal Matters.
While the Border Patrol can operate within 100 miles of any U.S. border, including the California coast and nearby cities, a federal judge held in April that the agency cannot conduct warrantless immigration stops throughout California’s Eastern District, which includes Sacramento.
The ruling came in response to a series of operations at the beginning of the year targeting farmworkers in Kern County, which critics said were based on little more than the men’s appearance.
“You just can’t walk up to people with brown skin and say, ‘Give me your papers,’” U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer L. Thurston said in court at the time.
A separate ruling last week barred the Border Patrol from making similar raids in the district including Los Angeles, after a lawsuit accused federal agents of making indiscriminate arrests in locations like Home Depot parking lots.
When asked about the alleged arrest of a U.S. citizen and the legal criticisms, federal officials pointed to a Homeland Security press release announcing the operation, which did not mention either subject.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the architect of much of the administration’s immigration policy, has reportedly pressed immigration officials to reach 3,000 arrests per day, including by targeting hubs for day laborers like Home Depot parking lots.
The Trump administration’s recently passed “Big, Beautiful Bill” domestic spending legislation contains about $170 billion in wider immigration and border funding, which officials say will fuel a surge in domestic immigration operations.
