Sacramento City Councilmember Rick Jennings said he was appalled after federal immigration agents detained a person in the Greenhaven-Pocket neighborhood Thursday morning, the latest in a string of enforcement sightings that have rattled residents across the capital region. The detention happened at about 8:45 a.m. near Greenhaven Drive and Leaf Avenue, according to the immigrant-advocacy group NorCal Resist.
Jennings, who represents Pocket, Greenhaven, Land Park and Curtis Park, said he was appalled by the arrest in his district, according to The Sacramento Bee. His office said it is coordinating with community partners to connect the detained individual and their family with available resources and support, per Jennings's statement. The incident is one of several that NorCal Resist documented across the capital region Thursday, with sightings also reported in East Sacramento, Midtown, Downtown, North Sacramento, Natomas and Northgate, as well as near Highway 99 and the Capital City Freeway.
A Broader Enforcement Push Before the Midterms
The activity comes amid what's being described as a 45-day federal immigration enforcement surge ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections. Immigrant-rights groups in Northern and Central California have reported a rising pattern of ICE sightings in recent weeks, according to the Sacramento Bee, and NorCal Resist separately described a heavier-than-normal ICE presence in the Sacramento region on a recent Thursday. A similar pattern has played out farther south, where a report indicated ICE launched what's being called Operation Safe California, a 45-day enforcement surge that started in San Diego, according to NBC San Diego. Community organizers there said they were fielding calls about enforcement activity every 10 to 15 minutes from across the region.
Other Sacramento-area council members have voiced similar alarm. Councilmember Lisa Kaplan condemned ICE enforcement tactics in Sacramento neighborhoods and criticized operations in her Natomas district after agents were reported there earlier in the week. Kaplan said the tactics create fear, disrupt workplaces and target families and neighbors. Councilmember Mai Vang, meanwhile, called on Sacramento police to stop what she described as colluding with federal immigration agents, an allegation the Sacramento Police Department denied.
School-Area Sightings Trigger Separate Controversy
The Pocket-area detention follows a separate episode earlier in the week in which federal immigration agents were spotted near Ethel Phillips Elementary School in south Sacramento, and agents reportedly detained a family friend of a student at a nearby grocery store. Sacramento City Unified School District trustees criticized the arrest and what they described as a lack of notification from Sacramento police during a Tuesday night city council meeting, and trustee Jasjit Singh said officials should be told when ICE is active in the area.
Accounts of exactly what happened near the school diverge. District trustees said ICE agents detained an individual near La Superior, while confirming that no immigration agents entered the school campus and no children were detained, according to KCRA. The Department of Homeland Security said ICE arrested a man named Oscar De La Rosa-Nunez during a targeted operation in south Sacramento that day, but disputed that it occurred directly outside the school, saying it happened a quarter-mile away. DHS said De La Rosa-Nunez had previously been deported in 2022 and later reentered the country illegally. It remains unclear whether the arrest DHS described is the same incident referenced by the trustees. Trustee Chinua Rhodes said district officials learned about the activity through their own Safe Schools staff rather than from Sacramento police, and the department did not directly answer questions about whether officers knew of, assisted with, or notified the district about the activity. Sacramento City Councilmember Caity Maple said her office received reports of an individual being detained by ICE in front of the elementary school.
City Manager Orders Police to Step Back From ICE Operations
Against that backdrop, Sacramento City Manager Maraskeshia Smith directed police officers not to act as a security detail for ICE or its immigration enforcement operations, writing to interim police chief Zachary Bales that the guidance took effect immediately. Sacramento police officers are not, and shall not act as, a security detail for ICE, Smith wrote, according to the Sacramento Bee's report on the matter. Smith's letter bars officers from being called in to assist ICE solely because individuals are following agents' vehicles, observing their activities, recording operations or otherwise engaging in lawful conduct, since the Bee's report noted such actions do not constitute a public safety emergency.
Smith said dispatchers must establish clear and articulable facts of a credible threat before sending officers to assist ICE. The order followed a video NorCal Resist posted showing Sacramento police detaining ICE observers near an enforcement operation in south Sacramento; the group alleged officers conducted a traffic stop on lawful observers and detained them for 20 minutes. Sacramento officers were also reported to have met with a person who appeared to be a masked federal agent. Activists had already raised objections to ICE's presence at a Sacramento City Hall meeting on October 20.
Tensions Spread to Neighboring Communities
The concern isn't confined to Sacramento proper. In Woodland, demonstrators held a rally and march on Tuesday in response to increased immigration enforcement across the city in recent weeks, according to CapRadio. That gathering followed an incident in which an ICE agent allegedly struck a Woodland resident with a vehicle, and ICE officers were reported outside a vote center in Yuba City the week before the march, raising concerns about voter intimidation ahead of Tuesday's election.
In San Diego, similar enforcement sweeps have drawn attention after multiple videos of operations circulated on social media, including an arrest near Imperial Avenue, an encounter near El Cajon Boulevard and agents spotted near a North Park construction site, per NBC San Diego's reporting. For now, Jennings's office says its focus remains local: connecting the family affected by Thursday's Greenhaven-Pocket detention with the resources they need as the broader enforcement surge continues to unfold across California.
