Border Patrol agents detained at least nine individuals Thursday morning during an immigration enforcement raid outside a Home Depot on Florin Road in South Sacramento, according to multiple local authorities. This marks one of the most visible immigration enforcement operations in the region this year.
Following the arrests, the incident gained attention quickly on social media, as local community members and immigrant rights advocates shared it. Some community members, protestors, and immigrant rights advocates gathered at the site within hours of the event.
A Fox News reporter who was conducting a ride-along with Border Patrol reported that 10 or more arrests were made.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it received a call at 7:47 a.m. about masked, armed men in the parking lot. Minutes after the raid began, they say Border Patrol informed the sheriff’s office that they were conducting enforcement in the area. The sheriff’s department stated that it did not participate in the operation and remains uninvolved in immigration enforcement.
The Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector confirmed on its Facebook page, via a video, that the arrests occurred. The video stated the arrests included at least eight undocumented individuals, whom they referred to as “being in the country illegally,” and one person disrupting the arrests.
Advocates claim that the one arrested for disrupting was a U.S. citizen, Jose Castillo Jr., who was later identified by immigrant advocacy group NorCal Resist as a volunteer observer who was filming the arrests. Online video shows he was maced and taken into custody after reportedly trying to record the scene.
Gissele Garcia is an organizer with NorCal Resist. She said he was a volunteer for their support group called “Migra Watch.”
“Because our observer, Jose Castillo Jr., who is a U.S. citizen, was recording, immigration officers maced him and arrested him,” said Garcia.
His wife, Andrea Castillo, later told KCRA her husband is a U.S. citizen with a REAL ID.
A vendor outside Home Depot, named Rayo, sells produce there. Day laborers frequent the area. Rayo asked to go by his nickname out of fear of being targeted. He says he believes some of the people who were taken are those he has worked with in the past.
He feels bad for the people who were arrested, and for their families, he told CapRadio in Spanish.
He came to work anyway, knowing of the arrest because he still needed to earn money to stay afloat.
Maritza Raya says she arrived to protest the arrests after learning about them on TikTok.
“Show the support that this community really needs because it’s just devastating at this point,” she said. “I had to take action today.”
In a statement, Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty said the arrests were “a violation of civil rights” and stressed that “there’s a difference between deporting criminals and targeting people at Home Depot looking for work to feed their families.” He added that “Sacramento has been a sanctuary city for over 40 years, and I will continue to protect all its residents.”
Sacramento Councilmember Caity Maple also condemned the arrests.
“I have been made aware of reports and video footage showing an ICE raid at the Home Depot on Florin Road. I want to say clearly that this is unacceptable,” she said in an online statement.
Even though Sacramento is more than 100 miles from the U.S and Mexico border, the city still falls within what is called the “100-mile zone”, an area where the border patrol has the authority to conduct immigration operations without any warrant.
Governor Gavin Newsom, responding to reports of the Thursday raid, told KCRA that he found the action “deeply concerning,” adding, “California will always stand up for our immigrant communities.”
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