Pomona residents on edge after immigration operation earlier this week
Cell phone video shows an armored vehicle and numerous deputies with the Riverside County Sheriff's Special Investigations Bureau serving a search warrant at an auto collision business on Holt Avenue Friday morning.
During the raid, some law enforcement officers wore vests labeled U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Grumblings about the operation quickly spread to immigration activists like Claudia Bautista, the executive director of the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center.
"I noticed at least one Department of Homeland Security license plate," Bautista said. "I notified the mayor."
The Riverside County Sheriff's Office said the Homeland Security Special Response Team helped them serve a search warrant. They later clarified that it was a narcotics-related investigation, not an immigration operation.
"This warrant was specific to a narcotics-related investigation," deputies wrote. "The Riverside County Sheriff's Office does not conduct those types of operations."
The operation happened three days after border patrol agents conducted an operation at a Home Depot in Pomona. They arrested 10 migrants. Agents said they had prior charges.
"It kind of feels like Pomona is being targeted," Bautista said.
Sergio Basterrechea is the operations director at God's Pantry, a food bank in Pomona that's run by formerly incarcerated residents. He said that Tuesday's immigration sweep had a huge impact on their distribution this week, as many people became too afraid to come pick up food.
"We serve about 600 to 700 on Wednesday," he said. "We had about an 80% decrease. Only about 100 families came in that Wednesday."
God's Pantry is a community hub. Basterrechea said one of his workers knew the barber who federal agents arrested on Tuesday.
"People in Pomona are scared," Bautista said. "We know students are not going to school. We know that people are not going to work. This is not going to have just human repercussions, but also economic repercussions on the city."
