Central Coast law enforcement responds to potential immigration raids
A news report about potential immigration raids in Northern California has Central Coast law enforcement responding.
According to SFGate, a sister news site of the San Francisco Chronicle, federal agents are planning a massive sweep to take down sanctuary city laws.
The article, published this week, said “U.S. Immigration officials have begun preparing for a major sweep in San Francisco and other Northern California cities.” It’s coming from a source familiar with the operation.
Thursday morning, Santa Cruz police chief Andy Mills tweeted the following: “Rumors re pending ice sweeps in sanctuary cities, Santa Cruz police has not been notified. Ice may not notify local jurisdictions on this type of operation. SCPD will not be involved regardless. If disinformation effort, #shame.”
Since President Donald Trump took office, California passed two state laws, SB 54, a sanctuary state bill, and AB 450, which in part prohibits employers from sharing workers’ information with immigration agents.
Attorney General Xavier Becerra also took time Thursday to send out a reminder about this.
“Ignorance of the law is not excuse if you violated,” Becerra said.
Immigration attorney Justine Brennan said the sweeps happen with every administration.
“Realistically, if you look at the numbers of people who are being deported, it hasn’t changed a whole lot, but the public perception has. People are starting to feel sort of hopeless that, you know, it’s just inevitable that they will get deported,” Brennan said.
To prepare for the worst, Brennan recommends people know what their rights are.
“Another thing they can do is to consult with an attorney and see what their options might be. We recommend people get their documents ready. If they have family records, criminal, any type of records that they have, that they keep them, you know, in a safe place, where they can be accessed easily,” Brennan said.
According to the article, agents are supposed to go after those who have been served with final deportation orders, people with criminal histories and possibly other undocumented immigrants along the way.
KION also spoke with staff at Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday, and they said they do not “speculate on future enforcements.”
