Multiple sightings of unmarked vehicles operated by ICE–U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement–were confirmed Sunday and Monday in East Side San José.
The first incident was between the intersection of South White Road and Tully Road and the intersection of King Road and Story Road on Sunday afternoon, according to an Instagram post from the Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network.
The network is a community defense project created to protect and support immigrant community members from deportation threats, according to a webpage from Sacred Heart Community Service. It provides this support during and after a community member is arrested or detained.
ICE agents were spotted in the area at 12:30 p.m. Sunday behind a Target on King Road and Story Road, according to the Rapid Response Network. By 3:30 p.m., ICE was no longer present in the area.
On Monday at 7:30 a.m., the county’s Rapid Response Network received a hotline tip about a potential ICE activity in a parking lot behind a Lucky store on West Capitol Avenue.
Volunteers from the network quickly arrived at the scene to confirm there was a white van and verified that the vehicle belonged to ICE.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to a webpage from the department. ICE enforces federal laws regarding the border, customs, immigration and international trade.
By around 8:30 a.m. Monday, a second van was spotted at Alum Rock Ave and South Jackson Avenue.
Councilmember Peter Ortiz, who represents District 5 in East San José, said he was at the scene on Sunday afternoon.
“Our community was in a state of fear,” Ortiz said.
He said he received a notification from the county’s Rapid Response Network and said there were ICE vehicles spotted in his district at the local shopping center on the corner of King Road and Story Road, a well-known hub for the Latino community.
He said that the Target store in the area was collaborating with ICE to help detain a female Colombian national.
“The community was in shock and frightened,” Ortiz said. “Unfortunately, a lot of the members of the community downplayed and didn't really take into consideration just how bullish Trump (and the) Trump administration was going to be with their deportation activity. Now we're starting to see that Trump is going to be giving ICE agents quotas.”
Sharat G. Lin, a San José resident and a volunteer for the county’s Rapid Response Network, said he also saw the notification when the network announced the ICE sighting on Sunday afternoon, but did not visit the scene.
Lin said typically the network alerts volunteers that there has been a sighting by texting volunteers the general location where ICE was spotted and other additional information including vehicle descriptions and nearby landmarks.
“Well, of course, it's scary but it's also infuriating,” Lin said. “I really feel that as someone who is privileged in the sense that I'm a citizen, I have some privilege to go to the scene and not fear that I'm going to be kidnapped (by) federal agents.”
Ortiz said he and the city are unable to comment on the reason why the individual was arrested because city officials are not collaborating with ICE.
He said he was also unable to comment on whether or not employees at the Lucky store on West Capitol Avenue collaborated with ICE on Monday morning.
The city of San José reaffirmed its commitment to preserving the “safety and dignity (for) all of its residents” regardless of an individual’s legal status or national origin by passing a memorandum, according to the city’s meeting minutes from Jan. 15.
The city of San José also reaffirmed its position to not have officers from the San José Police Department arrest a person based on their immigration status, according to the memorandum.
The memorandum also states that no city employee will cooperate with any immigration enforcement actions that target San José residents.
Huy Tran, the executive director for Services, Immigration Rights and Education Network said that there are limits to the actions immigration officers can take.
“As federal agents, they have the right to operate in any kind of public space,” Tran said. “The rights really kick in when they're trying to gain access to a place that is normally not open to the public. So that's where, for example, the most obvious and clear example is your home,”
Universities such as SJSU do not allow officers or unauthorized personnel in certain areas requiring keycards, pins and passwords due to privacy reasons.
An FAQ about CSU immigration actions says, “Public access is limited in certain areas of CSU universities and property because of privacy concerns, operational needs, or safety considerations.”
“Universities can choose not to comply with any kind of order or request from immigration agents absent a judicial order, meaning a subpoena, meaning a warrant,” Tran said.
Ortiz said he and other volunteers from the Rapid Response Network shot photos and videos of the ICE officers using Target’s private property to detain the individual from Colombia.
“We have photos of them using Target’s private property, which is sad, because King (Road) and Story (Road), those shopping centers and those businesses rely on the Latino and immigrant community for sales,” he said.
Ortiz also said he and the other volunteers followed four unmarked cars being operated by ICE into different nearby neighborhoods.
The four cars traveled separately into the Tropicana neighborhood, a residential area at the intersection of Tully Road and South King Road, one neighborhood in Capital Park and the Foxdale Village apartments.
Ortiz said the Colombian national was taken to an ICE office in Morgan Hill to be sent later to a detention center but he and the city do not know which one.
“There's an instinct in me that says I need to do something to distract these ICE agents, (either) verbally or just distract them just to say that, ‘Look, you're not welcome in this community,’ ” Lin said.
