ICE agents conduct operation in San Jose, Colombian national picked up, councilmember says
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted an operation in San Jose on Sunday, leading to a Colombian national being picked up, city officials confirmed.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said the San Jose Police Department was notified about the operation and will not assist or participate in the operations.
"I sincerely hope that ICE remains focused on enforcement actions related to violent and serious criminals harming our city, not neighbors who are contributing and law-abiding members of our community," Mahan said in a statement.
Orestes Cruz, the agency's Enforcment and Removal Operations (ERO) San Francisco Field Office Director, said in a statement, "ERO officers in the San Francisco area of operations are committed to enforcing our nation's immigration laws against violent criminals, sex offenders and others who pose a threat to public safety. This arrest is just one example highlighting the work ICE ERO officers perform each day to make our communities safer."
The Rapid Response Network, which is a project that protects immigrant families from deportation, said it responded to two locations in San Jose and it appeared ICE agents were conducting operations to enforce deportation orders that targeted certain people.
San Jose councilmember Peter Ortiz posted to Facebook that ICE agents were seen in the area of Story and King roads and the Capitol Park area.
"They're hunting down immigrants in our community as if they were animals and it's absolutely disgusting," Ortiz said.
Ortiz was out with Rapid Response in an effort to learn what he could do to help and protect the people who live in the community he serves.
He says the community has been nervous about the new presidential administration for this exact reason, but he believes immigrants are a lifeline in the San Jose community.
"Here on the east side of San Jose, our economy relies on immigrants," Ortiz said, "whether it's undocumented, naturalized, Vietnamese, Latino. Fifty percent of the businesses that are open in this community, really in the city of San Jose, are immigrant-run."
Lead dispatcher for the Rapid Response Network Socorro Montano started tracking ICE agents later in the day as they moved around the city.
"Then we got another call that said, 'No, actually, they're no longer here, they're in the neighborhood,'" Montano said.
Montano approached them to confirm they were federal agents.
"Then as I got closer at least one of their vests said police and then in almost invisible letters it said federal agent and then they also had a different logo than our local enforcement on their sleeve," Montano said.
She says the calls continued to come in all days, and many people were afraid.
"Folks called us [Sunday] worried about going to work, worried about going to go shopping, worried about visiting their families, worried about leaving their house at all," she said.
Both Montano and Ortiz believe this was a targeted ICE operation. They captured video of what looks like one person being taken into custody.
"My understanding is one person was picked up, a Colombian [national]," Ortiz said. "Unfortunately, that person is going to be going through the deportation process."
Going forward, Ortiz encourages everyone to know their rights if they are approached by an ICE officer.
"I would say you have the right to remain silent, you never have to out yourself as an undocumented individual," he said. "If you see ICE in the community make sure to call the rapid response network."
San Jose is a sanctuary city. Recently, San Jose City Council recently introduced a memo to reinforce their commitment to continuing to be one.
Similarly in Chicago, multiple sources said ICE agents were conducting an operation and were focusing on people who have active warrants.
In a post on X, ICE said that the countrywide operations resulted in 956 arrests and 554 detainers lodged.
