Since the inauguration of President Donald Trump, fear and panic about possible ICE raids has spread in California.
Updated 12 p.m. Thursday
Even before President Donald Trump took office for a second time, panic about his promised “mass deportations” — and raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — was already spreading throughout California.
For example, in an early January operation unrelated to ICE, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office served two search warrants related to retail theft. But photos of the vans used by the sheriff’s office began spreading on social media, accompanied by messages claiming that ICE was present and detaining people in East San José, where thousands of immigrant families live.
“People in the community were reaching out to me to ask me if this was true,” said Huy Tran, executive director of Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN), an organization with offices in San José and Fresno that offers legal aid, trainings and leadership development to immigrant communities.
Throughout California, there are networks of dedicated volunteers and attorneys who are responding to possible ICE activity around the clock — called Rapid Response Networks. SIREN, for example, forms part of Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network, which, on Jan. 26, responded to reports from neighbors about ICE sightings in East San José. This time around, the Rapid Response Network confirmed that the rumors were true: ICE agents were indeed transferring individuals who had received deportation orders.
But it can be difficult to distinguish fact from rumor while you’re scrolling, especially when the news is concerning. We spoke to immigration experts and advocates about what to know about current ICE operations in California and how to avoid sharing misinformation about ICE raids yourself — even with the best of intentions.
In California, a state with roughly 2 million undocumented individuals, according to the Pew Research Center, advocates say Trump has been weaponizing fear, along with harsher enforcement of immigration policies.
“The federal government is more likely going to do the things that can get the Trump administration visibility,” said Lourdes Martínez, who helps lead the immigrants’ rights practice at Oakland legal services nonprofit Centro Legal de la Raza. “They only have to detain a few people for the fear to really reverberate.”
It’s normal to feel scared about ICE showing up in your community, said Tran from SIREN. “I understand the desire to want to do something, to share information right away,” he added.
But fear also makes it hard for people to sort bad information from good, and panic can lead folks to quickly share online posts without checking them out further. “Anxiety, fear, it spreads incredibly quickly,” Tran said. “When people send information out to these huge networks, it spreads far, wide and fast.”
Q. What have ICE arrests looked like in Trump’s first days, and what is the focus?
But while Trump still said his administration would go ahead with mass deportations, officials appointed by him are being more careful with their words — laying emphasis, for now, on people with criminal convictions. “If you’re in the country illegally, ICE can visit you,” said Tom Homan, who Trump designated as “border czar.” “But right now … we’re concentrating on the worst first,” he clarified during an interview with Fox News on Wednesday. “The public safety threats.”
Q. What should I do if I see an online post about ICE in the community?
The major takeaway: If you think you see ICE in your neighborhood or see ICE reported nearby on social media, advocates advise that you call them instead of circulating anything online.
Tran of SIREN explained further: Before posting anything, you should first reach out to your local Rapid Response Network — a coalition of volunteers, organizations and attorneys that work together to confirm ICE sightings and connect people who have been detained by ICE to legal representation.
It’s possible that the Rapid Response Network in your city has already checked out the reported ICE sighting you’re seeing on your feed — so by calling them, you can get information from folks who are at the scene. You could also be alerting them to an ICE sighting that isn’t already on their radar.
San Francisco community organization Mission Action urged people to avoid sharing unverified information, with Executive Director Laura Valdez saying that such rumors “can unnecessarily heighten fear and confusion” and that communities should trust Rapid Response Networks to “verify reports and share clear, actionable updates.”
Google’s reverse image search can be a quick way to see where a photo has been used on the internet. For example, an image purporting to show a recent “ICE raid” could be, in fact, an archive image from another year entirely. However, keep in mind that Google prioritizes its own AI results at the top of the page. Those results have been proven to sometimes be unreliable, inconsistent and even inappropriate, so it’s best if you actually visit the source through the links provided.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and Customs and Border Protection, CBP, are both immigration enforcement agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. ICE conducts enforcement within the U.S. and manages detention and deportation operations. CBP conducts inspections at all U.S. “ports of entry” – at land borders, seaports, and airports. And the Border Patrol, which is part of CBP, polices the land borders in between the official ports of entry.
ICE and CBP officers generally need an administrative warrant (signed by an ICE or CBP supervisor) in order to arrest a person. However they can make an arrest without a warrant if they see a person illegally entering the country, or they have “reason to believe” a person is here illegally and likely to escape before they can get a warrant.
You have more protections if the encounter happens when you are in your home. Under the Fourth Amendment, if ICE or CBP agents (or any law enforcement officer) comes to your door and wants to enter your home, they either need to present a warrant signed by a judge (not just an administrative warrant from their agency) – or they need your consent. Agents could also technically enter without permission if they report hearing an emergency happening inside the home.
If you don’t want the agent to come in, legal advocates say, you don’t have to open the door unless the agent shows you a judicial warrant. (Advocates suggest asking the agent to slide the warrant under the door or hold it up to a window where you can read it.)
Federal law grants additional powers to CBP within a wide border zone that the government has defined as 100 air miles from an “external boundary” of the U.S. Within that zone – which covers most coastal cities in the country, including San Francisco – CBP agents can stop and question people, and board vessels, buses and trains to search for unauthorized immigrants without a warrant.
That said, you do still have constitutional protections, including the right to remain silent so you don’t say something that could incriminate you. Immigration officers cannot detain you without “reasonable suspicion” of a crime, and they cannot search you or your belongings without “probable cause” – unless you give your consent.
Central Valley (Fresno, San Joaquin, Merced, Stanislaus, and Kern counties) hotline: 559-206-0151
Los Angeles County’s hotline: 888-624-4752
Mobile Justice, which sends information, incident reporting and more to the ACLU.
If someone is inside a detention facility, they can dial 9233# from a facility phone on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays to reach the National Immigration Detention Hotline.
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