South Bay Day Laborer Center Staff ‘Devastated’ Over Immigration Arrest

South Bay officials are working to reassure immigrant communities they are supported following the startling arrest of a man by a plainclothes federal immigration officer at a day laborer center in San José on Tuesday and condemning what they say is a departure from the way detentions have typically been carried out.

Leaders from the city of San José, Santa Clara County and a host of local immigrant rights organizations and nonprofits on Wednesday decried the arrest as a violation of the trust they have built with local immigrant communities, and said it could spread more fear throughout the region.

“San José will not tolerate tactics that endanger or intimidate our immigrant neighbors,” District 5 Councilmember Peter Ortiz said during a press conference on Wednesday morning.

Ortiz said he and other council members are working on a memo that asks the city of San José, Santa Clara County and community-based organizations to work together “to create a comprehensive immigrant support plan.”

Ortiz said the plan would be aimed at boosting local coordination and response around targeted arrests like those seen in the city throughout the year, or potential raids like those playing out in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

The move comes as the Trump administration ramps up mass immigration enforcement efforts against people in the U.S. who lack permanent legal status. Immigration and border authorities are using increasingly aggressive tactics, such as targeting locations that have previously been off limits, including immigration courts, check-in centers and state courthouses. Last week, officers detained a man at an Alameda County courthouse in apparent violation of California law.

Around 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, city officials said a federal immigration officer wearing street clothes came into the open side door of ConXión to Community, a nearly 50-year-old nonprofit resource center in the city’s Little Saigon neighborhood, near East San José.

The officer said he was “police” and there to arrest a man who was a “fugitive,” according to Rose Amador, the retiring president and CEO of the center, who talked with her staff about the incident.

But the organization said he didn’t identify himself as a federal agent, and only after he took the other man outside did he handcuff him with the support of other officers who were in the parking lot, some wearing uniforms.

A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Amador said that in her 43 years at the nonprofit, she has never heard of an immigration arrest being made on the property, and said it was shocking to everyone there.

“It was startling. It was devastating to our staff to have one of our clients taken like that,” Amador told KQED. “We’re a big family with all of our clients and our programs.”

Amador said the center has served as a deeply trusted community resource for decades, offering help to people in need of work, along with other programs for people seeking food assistance, classes and job training, laundry services, showers and other necessities.

Ortiz called the arrest a “disturbing event” for the area.

“When federal officers conceal their identity or impersonate local law enforcement, it spreads fear, it spreads confusion and it spreads distrust across our neighborhoods. That is unacceptable in our city,” he said.

Ortiz, with the support of other council members, is pushing to enact a local law that would require federal agents to clearly identify themselves and ban them from wearing masks or face coverings in most instances, similar to a state bill that was signed into law by Gov. Newsom just days ago. It’s unclear whether immigration agents would abide by the law.

Ortiz and other local leaders hope to ensure residents don’t recede further from public life out of concern about immigration enforcement, noting the arrest appeared to be a targeted one, and that the day laborer center was not raided.

Socorro Montaño, a co-director of the nonprofit Latinos United for New America, and a lead dispatcher with the Rapid Response Network of Santa Clara County — a coalition that works to verify reports of ICE in cities and provide legal support to people who are arrested — said the community is better protected when it’s organized.

“This is a critical moment for all local businesses and organizations to review their safety protocol. Employees should be trained to identify ICE agents, know when to call the Rapid Response Network, demand warrants and exercise their rights,” Montaño said during the press conference.

The man who was arrested and his family are being assisted by an attorney and the staff of the Rapid Response Network, Montaño said.

Ortiz said he hopes the latest memo he and his colleagues are working on for immigrant support plans, in addition to past efforts to allocate more city money for legal aid and other services, along with the de-masking law, will help residents see their local officials are working to protect them.

“San José has always been a city of immigrants. Our immigrant neighbors built this city, they keep our economy moving…and they enrich every part of our culture,” Ortiz said.

“If our residents are not safe, our entire city suffers. We cannot allow this fear to define our city.”