A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in California, known as “Operation Safe California,” is raising questions about immigration enforcement practices and their impact on communities.
The Washington Examiner reports that the operation would direct ICE agents to arrest any undocumented immigrants they encounter, regardless of their criminal history. Homeland Security said it does not discuss law enforcement operations.
California Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the announced plan, accusing President Donald Trump of using fear to put families at risk. “California will stand up for its communities and hold federal agents accountable,” Newsom said.
Reported ICE crackdown in California is putting strain on communities.
In Sacramento, residents are reacting to a detention that occurred Thursday morning in a south Sacramento neighborhood. Witnesses say immigration agents arrested a 32-year-old man from Nicaragua who has lived in Sacramento for about five years. The man was preparing to drop his four-year-old daughter off at her mother’s house when he was arrested.
Delma Vidal, a Sacramento resident, recorded the detention outside her home and described the emotional scene.
“He was saying ‘call the police, call the police’ and he said ‘quiero mi bebé,’ I want my baby, who was in the car, and I think it was maybe a little 4-year-old that was in the car,” Vidal said.
Vidal said the incident left her emotional. “Yes, I’m a little emotional because we’re Hispanic, we’re human beings, we come from different worlds. I’ve lived in this house for 30 years and things like this shouldn’t happen,” she said.
The child’s mother, Lizeth, said hearing her daughter cry for her father had been painful.
“I always feel bad because I feel like it causes trauma in children. I speak from my own experience because as a mother, it’s really hard to hear your child screaming for their father,” Lizeth said.
Lizeth said the father was taken to Bakersfield, but she doesn’t know the status of his case.
Sacramento City Council member Mai Vang said her office has heard residents’ growing concerns about increased immigration enforcement. She pointed to a city policy limiting the enforcement of federal immigration laws on city property.
“We recently adopted a policy that would prohibit federal agents and ICE activities on municipal property – that’s an existing policy in the City of Sacramento. We’ve had conversations with the city manager to make sure we don’t want a good policy to die in implementation,” Vang said.
It remains unclear whether the detention in Sacramento is related to the 45-day law enforcement operation across California. KCRA 3 has reached out to ICE for more information and we are awaiting a response.
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