Video: Tense moments at Santa Rita Jail between ICE officers, activists

DUBLIN, Calif. - Tense moments inside the Santa Rita Jail lobby were captured on video and obtained exclusively on Friday by KTVU, giving the first glimpse into what made the sheriff and other leaders act this week, warning the federal government to stay off county property unless they have official business there – the first flexing of Alameda County's ICE-free zone policy. 

"I can't have that happening in my jail," Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez said in an interview, referring to the physical contact she saw between ICE officers and activists in the lobby earlier this week. "I can't have pushing and shoving… Our jail has to be a safe operation. Because this has happened on more than one occasion, I made the decision to lock down the lobby and restrict access." 

She said the jail is not a place for ICE to conduct immigration enforcement, and it's also not a place for the public to protest. 

On Monday, Alameda County's counsel issued a cease-and-desist letter to Julio Hernandez, ICE's acting field director in San Francisco, to have his officers stay off county property at the jail – including the lobby and parking lot – unless they had official business there, like a signed judicial warrant to detain particular people. 

Sanchez said she's noticed an uptick in ICE officers hanging out in the Santa Rita Jail lobby and parking lot for the last three to four weeks, and has been making phone calls to as high up as the Attorney General since then, to see what her options were. 

"These conversations happen at night, in the early morning, on weekends," Sanchez said. "It is a constant conversation as far as what our legal authority is as a local entity, as far what type of actions we can take against immigration authorities."

Sanchez said she has heard nothing back from ICE since the letter was sent. 

"I reached out on a number of occasions to the acting [ICE] director and I have not returned or gotten a return call," Sanchez said. "I mean, it'd be great if I had some communication with the new acting director, because at least I could get some information as far as what their mission is." 

She added: "I am unsure what that direction is, but the fact that we've had an increase in our parking lot, hanging out, waiting for specific people to walk out, that's on their end. Nothing has changed from our county policy." 
 

What the videos show

Timeline:

KTVU reviewed five videos: four from the Alameda County Sheriff's Office and another from a witness who was in the jail lobby.  All the videos are from Nov. 8, taken from different angles inside the jail lobby. 

All together, the videos show one or two tense skirmishes between two ICE officers and about five activists. There was some aggressive posturing and shoving by one ICE officer, and some shouting and filming by activists. No one was harmed or arrested. 

The videos paint a brief timeline of what occurred. 

At about 10:30 p.m., two ICE officers enter the jail lobby and go up to the front information desk. What they are talking about is unclear. The witness video is muffled. There is no audio on the sheriff's video. 

Both ICE officers are wearing Immigration and Customs Enforcement ERO vests and badges identifying them as police and ICE. Both are wearing weapons strapped to their legs. 

And both officers are covering their faces. One officer is wearing a red-white-and-blue American flag mask. The other taller officer is wearing a black balaclava, which is like a ski mask. 

At least five anti-ICE activists, wearing black and covering their faces with masks, are filming the ICE officers on their cell phones. At the closest point, the activists appear to be about 20 feet away from the front desk. 

When the officer in the American flag mask notices the activists filming him, the witness video shows him walking aggressively toward them. 

"What the f--- is wrong with you? What are you doing? What the hell?" a female activist is heard saying to the officer on the witness video. 

"Bro, chill. You're coming specifically at us," a male activist says to the officer. 

 "Move out of my way," the officer is heard saying. 

The witness video shows the officer in the American flag mask pointing his index finger and causing the activists to back up in the lobby.  

The officer is also seen putting his two hands on the male activist's shoulders and shoving him to move back. 

"Back off. I can be in this lobby," the officer is heard saying. 

"So can I," the male protester responds.

"You can't get in my way," the officer says. 

Meanwhile, the second ICE officer in the balaclava walks silently from the information desk to observe more closely what is going on. He is not heard saying anything. 

The woman is then heard repeating to the officer: "Go get your booking confirmation. Go get your confirmation. You're just harassing us now." 

The witness video ends shortly after that. 

One of the jail videos shows another little scuffle with two of the activists in another corner of the jail lobby, where the ICE officer in the American flag mask put his hands on the pair, pushing them back as they circle him closely, filming his actions.

Eventually, the ICE officers are seen leaving on their own. 

DHS responds

The other side:

The Department of Homeland responded this week to KTVU's inquiry over whether ICE officers would comply with the cease-and-desist to stay out of the county-owned jail lobby and parking lot. 

The agency said outright it would not. 

"ICE enforces the law 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in all 50 states, including in California. No sanctuary politicians are going to stop that," the DHS said in an email. "ICE does NOT need to receive permission from local authorities to enforce federal immigration laws—a clear federal responsibility under Article I, Article II, and the Supremacy Clause….Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, if you break the law, you will face the consequences. Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S."

The DHS also cited an occasion on Nov. 1, where ICE officers were at Santa Rita and ended up arresting Norlan Jose Alvarez Gonzalez, 26, of Nicaragua, after he was released following an arrest for DUI and also had a final deportation order against him. 

The DHS said Alvarez Gonzalez started running away when he saw the ICE officers into the lobby of the jail. 

It's unclear what has happened to Alvarez Gonzalez, and it was not possible to reach him to verify the DHS' account. 

As for jail arrests, an ICE statement sent to KTVU states: "The safest way to arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our streets is by lodging arrest detainers. Because some sanctuary states refuse to work with ICE law enforcement, criminal illegal aliens are released from jails into American communities to perpetuate more crimes." 

ICE congratulated Florida and West Virginia, where local law enforcement helped them make thousands of arrests.  

Critics say more could be done

What's next:

Kari Malkki said she and members of her group, Restore Oakland, have been out at Santa Rita Jail for about a year, welcoming people as they are released from custody, offering them pizza, hot drinks, goodie bags and a list of community resources to help people re-enter society.

They, and members of other groups, including Roots Community Health Center, Alameda County United in Defense of Immigrant Rights, Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership, the Interfaith Coalition for Justice in Our Jails, and others, began noticing a change in late October. 

Since then, she said that between two and six ICE officers seem to be ever present at the jail, waiting to detain people as they exit the facility. 

Malkki believes, based on observation, that the officers don't have a master list they're working off of, but instead, are racially profiling people, asking anyone with brown skin for their IDs when they leave jail. 

"We're navigating a completely new situation," Malkki said. "ICE agents have been stationed at the jail basically patrolling and have abducted community members that are being released from Santa Rita."

She said that the activist groups are there to provide "safe passage" for anyone questioned by ICE, reminding these people that they don't have to speak to ICE if the officers don't have a signed judicial warrant. 

The other night, Malkki said she was aware that 28 people were safely escorted out of the jail, protected by a ring of activists. She also credited Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas for standing outside with her group to see firsthand what's been happening.

But despite the county's cease-and-desist letter, Malkki said she and others have witnessed ICE officers hanging out in the Santa Rita Jail parking lot, and deputies allowing that behavior. 

"I think that the sheriff is the county's law enforcement agency and could be keeping us all safe," she said, "by actually enforcing ICE-free zones."  

She also thinks that the sheriff could do more by supporting people being released by giving them "safe passage" when they are leaving county property so that they do not have to risk interacting with ICE. She said she doesn't think its fair that "random community members" are the ones protecting them from ICE.

And while she understands the new policy restricts people from being in the jail lobby without official business, she said that ends up harming groups like hers and family members of incarcerated people who are also now not able to wait there. 

No fights between deputies and ICE

But Sanchez stressed that there is no way her deputies are going to engage in a physical fight with ICE.

"There was this unrealistic expectation of having an ICE-free zone. Who's going to enforce that?" Sanchez asked. "Are we asking for deputies to physically engage with another law enforcement entity?  That's just not going to happen. There's this expectation that we're going to go to war with one another. That is not going to happen."

Sanchez added that the ICE-free zones may make some in the community feel like they're in a safe bubble, that there's this "safety zone that can be protected."

"And that's not just realistic," Sanchez said. 

 

Santa Rita JailImmigration