‘It’s looking like a test run’: False ICE alarm at illegal cannabis operation readies community for potential immigration raids

Grassroots organization Your Allied Rapid Response (YARR) began to receive calls to its hotline around 7:40 a.m. Wednesday about a potential immigration raid happening just outside of Watsonville. Three minutes later, YARR sent a text message to its network of volunteers across Santa Cruz County, reading: “ICE raid in progress. Responders needed immediately.” 

By 8:30 a.m., a crowd of at least 15 community members, many of whom were YARR volunteers, had gathered around the entrance of a cannabis warehouse located in Royal Oak, just outside of Watsonville, with the belief that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were conducting arrests. Other community members stood across the street observing from afar. 

In fact, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department deputies were carrying out a search warrant related to illegal cannabis activity at the warehouse located at the intersection of San Juan and San Miguel Canyon roads. There were no arrests made on Wednesday, but law enforcement agencies seized illegal cannabis plants from the site. All 21 of the employees at the site were released, said Kevin McInerney, commander for the Law Enforcement Division of the California Department of Cannabis Control.

The incident, and the crowd that showed up to bear witness, highlights the increased anxieties over immigration enforcement in the community, but also offers a window into how residents have come together in response — and how organized local resistance networks have become.

Wednesday’s false alarm was “looking like a test run” of how YARR’s network of volunteers responds to reports of ICE activity, said volunteer Pam Sexton. “And what a beautiful test run.”

The first instinct for Sexton after receiving the alert was to get to the warehouse on San Juan Road in Royal Oaks as quickly as possible, she said. “I didn’t comb my hair,” Sexton said. “[I] just need to get out there.” 

When community members arrived at the site, they began to look in between the green fence surrounding the warehouse, trying to get a glimpse at the numerous law enforcement agencies on the other side. 

Pajaro resident Manuel Abrego, who lives near the site, said he walked over because he saw a heavy law enforcement presence and wanted to know what was happening. 

“Everyone is really scared, especially with what happened in Camarillo,” Abrego said, referencing immigration raids in Ventura County last weekend that targeted cannabis farms.

By 9:30 a.m., people had crossed San Juan Road and created a human barricade in front of the property entrance to monitor who was entering and exiting the warehouse. 

As the number of onlookers and observers grew, McInerney, the state law enforcement official, started to approach the crowd, explaining the situation at hand and answering questions from concerned community members.

The investigation was not related to immigration, he said, adding that FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration agents were on site assisting with the search warrant. McInerney told Lookout that he wanted to prevent and minimize any fear community members might be feeling. 

Some in the gathering crowd were skeptical that McInerney was telling the truth. Abrego, the Pajaro resident, told Lookout that someone connected to the property owners had told the crowd that there were law enforcement agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel inside, which led Abrego and other community members to stay and question the credibility of McInerney statements. 

To keep the community alert and notified, other observers began to livestream on social media to friends and family, turning their phone cameras on McInerney and YARR volunteers and asking them to clarify to their online followers that the law enforcement operations were not related to ICE.  

Traffic on San Juan Road slowed down as drivers took videos as they passed by the scene, honking their horns in support of the community members or yelling obscenities such as “F–k ICE,” believing that immigration agents were inside the property.  

Each time a car would exit the property, YARR volunteers such as Olivia Winter would document on their phones or in notebooks if the vehicle belonged to law enforcement or employees. “I’m trying to [keep] count,” she said. 

Abrego and Watsonville resident Jesus Alvarado briefly stopped employees on their way out, quizzing them on what law enforcement had asked them, and if they saw any immigration agents lingering inside. Alvarado also took videos of all the interactions he had with employees. 

“I’m trying to figure out if [law enforcement] is treating them fairly and what they see,” Alvarado said in Spanish. “I’m going to ask each person that leaves to figure out what’s happening.” 

Abrego told Lookout that despite what McInerney told him and other community members, he wanted to make sure that employees not directly involved with the illegal cannabis operation at the center of the investigation weren’t arrested. 

“They have to tell us what’s going on because the officer in charge is telling us one thing and someone else who’s been inside is telling us a different story,” Abrego said. “Someone is lying to us and we have the right to know what’s occurring in our community.” 

Sexton noted how quickly community members reacted when a bus full of workers almost entered the property while law enforcement was conducting its search, and had signaled to the driver to leave the site.

“That was beautiful to see how quickly the group reacted, and that caused the bus to continue on,” she said. 

By the time McInerney confirmed to Lookout that all employees had been released, community members had accounted for only about 11 of the 21 employees. The rest had exited through a rear entrance, according to McInerney. 

Winter told Lookout on Wednesday morning that the situation became confusing because there was a lot of hearsay. “People are rightfully afraid, and so they spread information on social media,” she said. “It’s really difficult to confirm what’s actually happening.” 

Even if this situation didn’t turn out to be an immigration raid, that shouldn’t mean people can let their guard down about potential immigration raids in the future, said Winter. People are going to continue to be really scared after Wednesday’s incident, she said. 

By 12:30 p.m., all of the employees had been released and allowed to go home, and community members began to trickle out as the situation began to calm down. About five community members stayed to see law enforcement wrap up to ensure that nothing out of the ordinary happened. 

Sexton told Lookout that seeing the number of people who showed up to the site on Wednesday demonstrated that YARR’s network of volunteers is working. 

There were so many people who came, she said. And even after they learned that the law enforcement activity wasn’t ICE, people stayed. “People said, ‘Well, OK. We want to stay, though,’” she said. The actions from community members might have also pressured officers to speed up whatever they were doing inside and release employees faster, Sexton said. 

The biggest lesson learned from Wednesday’s event is that the community will respond in times of need, said YARR volunteer Emiko Stewart: “That’s why I love our community. When we need it, we will come, we will show up, we will show out.”

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