Barbara Riverwoman talks to two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents outside the Santa Cruz Main Jail. (Jesse Kathan — Santa Cruz Local)

SANTA CRUZ >> Agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, visited the Santa Cruz Main Jail on Saturday in an unsuccessful attempt to arrest an inmate. ICE has visited Santa Cruz County dozens of times over the past two years, and has previously arrested someone exiting the jail. This time, however, more than two dozen legal observers gathered on the scene to document the visit and inform the community of ICE’s presence on social media.

An alert first went out to volunteers with local ICE response group Your Allied Rapid Response around 8:30 a.m. Over the next several hours, around a hundred people came and left the jail, said Santa Cruz resident Melissa Dennis, who teaches third grade at Ohlone Elementary near Pajaro. She said she came to the jail to offer support to people facing immigration enforcement. 

“Whether they are documented or not, I know a lot of colleagues and friends and families that go to my school are full time carrying their passport and their green cards with them out of fear of what might happen if they’re stopped by ICE,” she said. “That’s probably my biggest motivation.”

The visit Saturday comes amid multiple false alarms of immigration enforcement presence in social media posts over the past week. Your Allied Rapid Response, or YARR, has reiterated requests not to amplify unverified information to avoid stoking unnecessary panic among immigrant residents.

YARR has recently launched a text notification service to alert residents to verified reports of immigration enforcement activity.

Saturday incident

At 1 p.m. Saturday, Barbara Riverwoman, 88, stood next to a black SUV in the parking lot of the Santa Cruz Main Jail talking to two ICE agents.

If the agents attempted to arrest somebody, “I may have to do civil disobedience and step in front of their vehicle,” she said. “I’ve asked them to just call the police and arrest me instead of killing me.”

One agent sat silently in dark sunglasses. The other, who would not share his name, smiled. “I’m only violent when I have to be,” he said. “I’m just trying to do my job.”

He confirmed to Santa Cruz Local that they had come to arrest a jail inmate, but would not give the inmate’s name.

In front of the jail stood several dozen people, many of whom were legal observers trained by YARR wearing bright yellow vests with the words “community legal observer.” Many had been there since they were first alerted to ICE presence that morning.

Mayoral candidate Ami Chen Mills was among the crowd, and had earlier recorded an exchange with the ICE officer asking if he was aware of the deaths and unsanitary conditions in immigration detention facilities. “Obviously we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t terribly concerned,” she told the agent. 

A small number of masked protestors arrived and yelled at the agents but soon left, Dennis, the Santa Cruz resident, said.

When the agents first arrived, they were turned away by sheriff’s officers, the ICE agent said. They drove away, tailed by observers, but soon returned.

By then the jail doors had been locked, and the agents sat in their car for several more hours before leaving in the mid-afternoon.

Local immigration enforcement

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office did not receive advance notification that ICE would be coming to the jail, and does not participate in civil immigration enforcement, a representative wrote in a statement Saturday. 

“The Sheriff’s Office remains committed to protecting public safety, maintaining community trust, and carrying out its responsibilities in accordance with California law and applicable county policies governing cooperation with federal immigration authorities,” the statement said.

California law prohibits local law enforcement from assisting in civil immigration enforcement. Earlier this year, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors established rules to deny immigration enforcement agents entry to private areas of county facilities without a judicial warrant. The county has also barred federal immigration enforcement officers from using county parking lots, parks and other spaces as staging areas for immigration enforcement.

Unlike the standoff Saturday, most immigration enforcement activity in Santa Cruz County has occurred out of the public eye.

Between Jan. 1, 2025 and Aug. 5, 2026, ICE has arrested at least seven people in Santa Cruz County, according to federal data compiled by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by Santa Cruz Local. Six of the arrestees had criminal convictions or pending charges. 

One arrest on April 15, 2025, took place at the Santa Cruz Main Jail. That arrest also occurred without prior notification, a sheriff spokesperson has said.

ICE has notified local law enforcement of visits on 38 occasions during the same time period.  It’s unclear how many other visits have been made without informing local law enforcement.  Federal officials are not legally required to notify local authorities of their presence.

Across California and the country, ICE has increasingly targeted people without any criminal history.

What to do if you see ICE

Saturday’s visit occurred following multiple false alarms of ICE activity, including at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and the Watsonville Plaza. YARR volunteers have cautioned the public not to share social media posts of unverified ICE sightings, which can cause undue fear and confusion. 

YARR operates a hotline at 831-239-4289 for reports of possible immigration enforcement, and sends out trained volunteers to confirm the presence of ICE. Confirmed sightings are posted on Instagram. YARR has also launched a new text service for alerts of confirmed immigration enforcement presence.

Those approached by immigration enforcement:

• Have the right to remain silent.
• Have the right to see a lawyer before signing documents.
• Do not have to open their door for immigration officials or law enforcement unless presented with a judicial warrant. Immigration agents may present an administrative warrant with an immigration official’s signature, but a judicial warrant must be signed by a judge.

See Santa Cruz Local’s guide for immigration resources for more information about rights and resources. Sus Derechos, a project of the Santa Cruz Office of Education and local nonprofits, has more immigration information and resources.

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