In recent weeks, reports of increasing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity have heightened fears throughout the East Bay that our documented and undocumented neighbours could be at risk of kidnapping and deportation.

Two weeks ago, hundreds of everyday people of all ages and backgrounds headed to Coast Guard Island to peacefully block agents from gaining access to their housing. ICE and Border Patrol responded with violence, using physical force, chemical agents, and stun grenades to allow the troops to drive over the bridge onto the island. Local news captured harrowing footage of Border Patrol vehicles driving through the crowd as protesters threw eggs and chanted insults. Two protesters were hospitalized during the morning’s action, one for an injury to the foot sustained by being run over by a Border Patrol vehicle and the other for receiving a blow to the jaw from a projectile fired by the agents.

That night, there was a rapid escalation when a person experiencing a Bipolar episode recklessly drove a U-Haul in the direction of officers, provoking them and leading to them opening fire in the general direction of the truck. As a result, the assailant and a bystander were shot and had to be rushed to a hospital.

All around the bay, communities are trying to stand between federal agents and their most vulnerable. However, their numbers are thin compared to the flexibility and speed of ICE Deployments. In Stockton, 25 undocumented people awaiting court cases received mandatory check-in requests and, upon their arrival, were detained. In Fremont, ICE conducted invasive and threatening knock-and-talk operations in a community home to an ethnically and racially diverse population.

Alameda Unified School District and other Bay Area districts have reaffirmed their pledge not to cooperate with Immigration enforcement and to protect their students. Acalanes Union High School District (AUHSD) has similarly made clear the protections available to all students. John Nickerson, the superintendent of AUHSD, had this to say: “The message to students is that we believe our schools are safe places to be, and we have protections and protocols in place to protect students and certainly understand concerns and anxiety they they might have, and if we have services in our school that can be available, should they want to discuss something.”

Organizations like Stand Together Contra Costa have provided the public resources to report ICE and ensure a community response, as well as representation in immigration court.

If you or anyone you know has an encounter with, is arrested, or even notices evidence of immigration enforcement, can should call (925) 900-5151.