Have you seen immigration agents? Hotlines await your call
The high-pitched squeal of a phone alerts a volunteer that immigration officers might be at work.
If the call is credible, the scramble begins. Immigrant advocacy groups deploy a rapid-response team to investigate.
RELATED: What rights do immigrants have? This Perris center has answers
On Wednesday, Jan. 29, one such call led Javier Hernandez, executive director of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice to The Home Depot parking lot in Riverside, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were reportedly seen at a spot where day laborers seek work.
“Immigration sightings can hurt immigrants and their emotional well being,” Hernandez, 36, said. “So we verify whether or not these tips are true or not to make sure that panic and fear isn’t being spread.”
Like other immigration organizations across Southern California, the San Bernardino-based group has been busy since Donald Trump returned to the White House after a campaign pledge to deport undocumented immigrants at a level never before seen in the nation.
Calls to hotlines where community members can send in tips and reports on immigration officers and U.S. Border Patrol activity are multiplying. That’s spurred advocates in the Inland Empire, Orange and Los Angeles counties to expand their staffs and the resources they offer as unverified reports of immigration raids pop up on social media, get shared with thousands and amplify fear among undocumented residents, organizers said.
While phones are ringing frequently in the Inland Empire and Orange County, that’s not yet been the case in Los Angeles County, though concerns remain.
On Sunday, Jan. 26 — days after Trump issued executive orders to crack down on illegal immigration, the Los Angeles division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration took part in “targeted enforcement efforts.” ICE defines these as “planned arrests of known criminal aliens who threaten national security or public safety.” It’s not known where in L.A. the operations took place or how many people, if any, were arrested.
“We’ve only received less than five calls related to ICE activities,” Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesperson for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, said. “We’ve only done three reports of arrests, and two of those were verified as true by us.”
As these groups reach out to undocumented immigrants, others echo the Trump administration’s stance that these immigrants have broken the law by illegally crossing the border and should not be accepted in the U.S.
“Because ICE is tasked with apprehension of felons who are often armed and dangerous, to broadcast their targeted law enforcement locations is endangering these law enforcement officers,” said Robin Hvidston, executive director of the Claremont-based We The People Rising. “President Trump was elected by the American people, in large part, because they want the border secured and criminals in the USA illegally repatriated to their home countries.”
Joy Miedecke, president of the East Valley Republican Women Patriots in the Riverside County desert, was blunt.
“This is terrible,” she said. “Anybody that coerces or helps people break the law should also be indicted or arrested … We need to follow the law.”
An ICE spokesperson could not be reached for comment this week.
Such hotlines were applauded by Mai Nguyen, research and policy manager for the Harbor Institute for Immigrant & Economic Justice in Orange County. They help ensure that the community is empowered with verified reports — rather than feeling panicked by misinformation, Nguyen said.
The public has a right to observe law enforcement activities, document them and hold these agencies accountable for legal and human rights violations, Nguyen added.
As it has with the hotline to its east, the Orange County line has seen inquiries explode.
“We are receiving more calls now than we’ve ever received in an entire year under the Biden administration,” Sandra De Anda, network coordinator for OC Rapid Response Network, said in a Friday, Jan. 31, text message.
She called such hotlines “crucial” because they allow advocates to continue “keeping watch on ICE and showing our community that we’re here for each other, even in the darkest times.”
In Los Angeles County, Cabrera attributed the hotline’s low call volume to the number becoming an immigration agent spotting line just a week earlier. Another reason for the lack of calls may be the absence so far of large-scale public immigration raids in the greater Los Angeles area, he said.
Meanwhile, the coalition continues to host “know your rights” workshops, vigils for immigrants and provide low- or no-cost legal help for immigrants.
“We are focusing on empowering the community, not on panicking the community,” Cabrera said. “We want to encourage people to seek out support before, during and after” immigration enforcement.
The Inland Empire organization, based in San Bernardino, has had a 24/7 hotline since 2017. Its original purpose was to report immigration activity. When the coronavirus pandemic struck, it shifted to a resources hotline. Now, the number is back to its original purpose.
As of Friday, Jan. 31, the hotline had received more than 500 calls, Hernandez said. Volunteers checked out more than 70 of these reports and confirmed five or six.
“We have gotten so many calls because there’s a lot of fear right now,” Hernandez said. “We understand that the threat of immigration raids and spotting immigration can create chaos, panic and fear. It doesn’t help that sometimes people mistake police activity for immigration activity.”
Once a call is placed through the group’s dispatch system, volunteers within 5 to 30 miles of the reported sighting go investigate. If immigration agents are seen, teams are instructed to film the interaction to document any potential infringement on an immigrant’s rights, as well as to inform any arrested or detained people of their rights. Later, volunteers would offer legal aid.
Because of the influx of calls, Hernandez said the group has had to reach out to past volunteers to bulk up its on-the-ground teams.
Previously, 15 to 20 dispatchers would provide resources and the group didn’t have to send out teams. Now, the organization is working toward getting 25 dispatchers. It has 75 to 100 volunteers to help verify immigration reports.
Similarly, the Orange County network has a team of dispatchers that monitors calls about potential ICE operations and sends “ICE watchers” into the field.
“These watchers then investigate the sightings to confirm or debunk them, ensuring the community can go about their day with peace of mind,” De Anda wrote.
Even in the case of what she called “a false alarm,” De Anda said the network hands out “know your rights” materials and point immigrants to other resources.
As for the morning tip about The Home Depot, advocates concluded it had some basis in fact, as several people by the hardware store said they saw immigration officers. Though no arrests or detainments occurred, the sighting increased the fear among the laborers who stand in the parking lot of Riverside’s Casa Blanca neighborhood, Hernandez said.
Immigrant advocate Fanny Millan, who lives in Ontario, said she saw an unmarked white van with people inside wearing uniforms with ICE shoulder patches.
“We usually have around 150 to 200 workers out here,” Millan, 41, said. When the van drove by, she said, “I want to say 25 to 40 workers left right away.”
“This is very concerning for immigrant communities,” said Millan, an organizer for the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center, adding that a similar van was seen there the day before. “I’m a DACA recipient and knowing your rights can prevent you from getting deported.”
Hernandez, who arrived within 20 minutes of his group getting the call, said the appearance might mean agents plan an operation there.
“This type of work wasn’t something that we were not ready for,” Hernandez said. “We knew that this was a possibility so we’ve been prepping since November.”
Many immigration organizations are encouraging social media users not to spread misinformation about possible immigration sightings. Instead, they urge them to report them to a local immigration hotline or to only repost information with a date, timestamp, specifics of what activity was seen and a location. Advocates also are asking the community to watch for and report immigration enforcement.
“This is not a left versus right issue or an immigrant versus citizen issue,” Hernandez said. “If we are allowing people’s rights to be violated, there’s no guarantee that our rights will be protected if we allow that precedent to be set.”
IMMIGRATION HOTLINES
Immigrant advocates have set up phone lines and emails for reports of potential activity by immigration officers.
Inland Empire
Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice
909-361-4588 or contact@ic4ij.org
Los Angeles County
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights
888-624-4752 or info@chirla.org
Orange County
OC Rapid Response
714-881-1558 or info@OCrapidresponse.org
Staff reporter Linh Tat contributed to this report.