Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has quietly launched a 45-day immigration crackdown in California called ‘Operation Safe California.” There have been no recent raids or sweeps in Sonoma County, but ICE did take a Forestville resident into custody on Tuesday morning, Oct.13.
At 8:45 am, the North Bay Rapid Response Network, an immigrant protection organization, put out an alert that ICE agents had been spotted at the intersection of Highway 116 and Templeman Road, between the towns of Forestville and Graton. The group said they were alerted to the presence of ICE by a member of the community. Later that morning at 11:05 am, the network said it had confirmed that ICE had arrested a resident of Forestville.
Sending out a warning
After some sleuthing, the Sebastopol Times identified the person who tipped off North Bay Rapid Response on Tuesday morning. He was happy to talk with us but requested anonymity, which we agreed to provide.
Here is his report of what happened:
“The first car I saw as I was headed South on 116 just before Russian River Vineyards was the first blacked-out Tahoe—all limo-tint. I have seen these vehicles on the various ICE Watch groups I follow. It was idling—exhaust showing because it was 43 degrees—and backed into a not-a-driveway spot, so I thought, ‘That’s odd.’ Then 200 yards ahead was this older van with its hazard lights on. As I approached it, I was suspicious. I knew that limo-tint on the front windows would be the giveaway. And of course, it was blacked-out, too. At that point, I said something like “Bullshit” and started yelling “La Migra!” and blowing an airhorn I keep in the glove compartment.”
He drove past them, trying to figure out what to do. He said he was certain it was ICE, but wanted to verify it before reporting. Then he did something most folks might think twice about.
“I did a U-turn at Templeman Road and went north on 116. When I got to the van, I just stopped in my lane, rolled down my window and pointed at them to roll theirs down too. I couldn’t see if anyone was in the van—it was so dark a tint. But he rolled it down, and I asked, “What’s up?” He said, “Waiting for a tow.” But I could see by their street clothes, bulky as if vests were underneath—two big men, looking preoccupied with something on their laps. I could see that the van was a paddy-wagon prisoner transport, because I could see inside that there was criss-cross reinforcement to the back window, just like the back seat of police cars.”
He then drove into every driveway along the road, yelling “La Migra!” and honking his airhorn. He also drove onto a nearby construction site, where he said he could see “a handful of brown-skinned men working. I told someone in the parking lot that ICE was staged out on 116, and he immediately was concerned. ‘I don’t want that shit here. I’m going to tell everyone’... and then I left to go to work and post my photos, but as I turned left onto Guerneville Road (eastbound), there was another blacked-out Tahoe idling.”
He said neither of the black Tahoes had front license plates. “I neglected to look at the back, so I can’t say if they had back plates.” None of the three cars moved during the whole time that he was driving around, yelling and alerting the neighbors. He snapped photos of their cars, then headed to work.
He said he was surprised and saddened that no one else stopped to help.
“A lot of people drove by me on 116 as this was going on,” he said. “Nobody else stopped or slowed. I have to say I am a little disappointed about that. I pay attention to this shit, and I am frustrated that it had to come to me. I am prepared for it, but more people should be, too.”
“I was thinking to myself, ‘Is this REALLY happening to me? Nobody else is seeing this?’”
Asked if he’d done any anti-ICE training, like that offered by North Bay Rapid Response Network, he said, “I have not. My friends and I pay attention and are ready. I have a group of close friends that have similar values, and we talk a lot about ‘What we would do…’ I think it’s a healthy discussion for everyone. The North Bay Rapid Response Network is super, but it’s not authoritative for everyone. We don’t all have to be taught how to do the right thing—but thinking and talking and planning is pretty important. We all have airhorns in our family cars for starters.”
When he got to work, he posted the photos to his social networks, including Reddit, and called North Bay Rapid Response. “I knew that I needed to reach out to them for further verification and for getting the word out. My network is only so big.”
North Bay Rapid Response Network on the case
Around 8 am, North Bay Rapid Response’s Luis Zargoza took the call. He doesn’t want to second-guess the actions of the man who tipped them off.
“It was admirable,” Zargoza said. “You know, he got the word out, and people listened.”
On the other hand, Zargoza said, “We train our legal observers not to engage with immigration. When our legal observers respond, they’re not there to stop a detention; they’re there to document a detention, and so, more than anything, we really tell people to assess their own risk.”
Asked if he thought the tipster might have been detained by ICE for his actions in alerting the neighborhood, Zargoza said, “Well, yeah. Unfortunately, we have seen what we call preventable detentions. We are seeing that in other parts of the country.”
Zargoza said that since Tuesday’s sighting, the North Bay Rapid Response Network’s hotline has been flooded with calls.
“We cover three counties,” he said. “We cover Napa County, Sonoma County, and Solano County. Yesterday [Tuesday] we had an influx of calls in Sonoma County, but today we’re seeing an influx of calls in both Napa and Solano counties. We have been getting an overload of calls yesterday and today.”
The calls in Napa turned out to be a false alarm—it was another law enforcement agency, not immigration, doing an operation.
“Right now, everybody is understandably anxious and nervous, and so anytime they see unmarked vehicles or agents dressed in civilian clothes, but with vests, they call us right away because they think it’s immigration,” Zargoza said. “It’s a fine line trying to keep the community aware, but then also not just creating chaos and panic. That’s what we try to avoid as much as possible.”
Zargoza said he was aware of just two ICE arrests in his region in the last two days—one in Sonoma County and one in Solano County.
The County steps in
Fifth District Supervisor Lynda Hopkins mentioned the ICE incident in Forestville in her newsletter this week.
She wrote, “We have all seen what ICE has done in communities across the nation. We have seen the videos of people being shot, of children being pulled away from parents and abandoned sobbing on the sidewalk. We have heard about ‘Operation Safe California,’ and the increasing presence of ICE in the Central Valley. We have worried that the ICE surge would find its way to the Bay Area.”
The Sebastopol Times reached out to ICE, but was told by ICE public information officer Jason Sweeney that they had no record of anyone being arrested in Sonoma County on Tuesday or Wednesday, but they also told us they’d check their records again if we could provide the person’s name and alien registration number—neither of which we had, of course.
On Friday, Hopkins wrote the Sebastopol Times that ICE’s arrest of the Forestville resident, who is a citizen of Colombia, had been a targeted arrest.
“I just spoke with Sheriff Engram—he said it took him until now to track down and access the information. The person arrested had received their final removal order from a judge. ICE had a warrant to arrest this person, and it was a targeted arrest, not a random traffic stop or part of a broader sweep,” she wrote.
She told the Sebastopol Times. “We do have a fully funded deportation defense attorney who works in the public defender’s office, who can provide deportation defense services.” She said the board had created and fully funded this position given the likelihood that the Trump immigration crackdown would affect Sonoma County.
According to a September 2026 report from Bay Area Council Economic Institute, “Sonoma County is home to approximately 79,000 immigrants, 26% of whom are undocumented, the highest undocumented share of any Bay Area county’s immigrant population.”
Given that due process seems to have been followed in the case of the Forestville resident from Colombia, it is unclear whether the county will attempt to mount a defense in this case.
Hopkins did, however, want to send a message to his family. “We also work really hard to provide support to anyone in our community who is in need, but specifically, if anyone knows the family members of the individual who was arrested, we want to make sure that they have everything they need,” Hopkins said. “If this person was a breadwinner or an income earner, and they are concerned about the loss of income, we want to make sure that we are there to support them. So folks can reach out to our office and email district5@sonomacounty.gov. We’re here to help.”
Back in West County
I asked the community member who reported the ICE sighting on Tuesday if he was worried for his safety. After all, if he was close enough to take a picture of their cars, they were close enough to take a picture of his. Not to mention that he was interfering with the work of licensed federal agents, which is what ICE agents still are, despite the violent acts of some of their number and the agency’s resulting unpopularity.
“I am sure they have my photo and license plate now,” he said. “But I also come from a place of huge privilege—fifth-generation Californian, related to seven people who came across on the Mayflower. (Great grandpa was a gigantic lineage buff.) I am the person to use my privilege. I feel that there is nobody more deeply connected to my country, my countrymen, and also fully aware that I am the descendant of immigrants. ICE can come for me. I have friends in high places. Let ’em try.”
That’s some real shoe leather sleuthing!