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Aleyda Rodriguez, an East Palo Alto resident and mother, fainted and suffered a medical emergency on Aug. 25, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement carried her from her car in a targeted arrest. Hours after she was taken, agents checked Rodriguez, who has a blood condition that is exacerbated by stress, into Stanford Hospital.
In the days following, masked federal agents stood outside of her hospital door, denying visitors and interfering with medical staff who wanted to enter the room. The agents discharged Rodriguez on Aug. 29 without telling her family and against the advice of her doctor, according to Rodriguez’s primary care physician Yusra Hussain.
“There was no question in my mind that she was going to be in the hospital for a few more days,” Hussain said in a previous interview. “She was very frail. She was drenched in sweat. She actually had sepsis just four days before that, with two infections. She was unresponsive. That was not a healthy picture.”
The arrest, which was one of the first in East Palo Alto under the new federal administration, shook the largely Latino community and drove fears about a possible surge of immigration enforcement.
But community leaders and immigration experts confirmed that Rodriguez has been released from custody and in the two months since her apprehension, there have been no confirmed federal raids in San Mateo County.
“I have good news,” Palo Alto City Council member Julie Lythcott-Haims, who was among the community members who protested the detention, wrote in a statement in late October. “Yenny [Aleyda] has been released from ICE custody.”
It wasn’t immediately clear when Rodriguez was released.
After Rodriguez was discharged, hospital staff and local advocates rallied for better patient protections under the federal administration, which showed interest in ramping up Bay Area immigration efforts in late October. So far, these enhanced efforts have not materialized, according to the San Mateo Rapid Response Network, which is comprised of immigration experts and local volunteers who work a 24/7 hotline to activate legal support and confirm ICE sightings.
“In the week of October 23-30, our trained verification team responded more than 30 times to possible ICE sightings and rumors by arriving to sites of the possible ICE activity,” San Mateo County Rapid Response documents state. “In most instances they found no evidence of ICE activity, although we did confirm a few targeted enforcement operations on Sunday, October 26.”
While there have been no confirmed immigration-related arrests in East Palo Alto since Rodriguez’s in August, credible evidence shows federal agents may have made a targeted arrest in the city on Oct. 26, San Mateo County Rapid Response Network representative Nani Friedman wrote in a message to this publication. No family members or relatives reached out to the network to confirm the arrest following reports of the activity.
In October, the San Mateo County Rapid Response Network confirmed 24 targeted immigration arrests including 19 adult men and 5 women across Redwood City, Daly City, San Bruno, San Mateo, Millbrae, South San Francisco and East Palo Alto.
At least nine of the people were parents to children under 18 years old, according to the network, and no children were detained.
Sixteen of the residents were detained at ICE check-ins, which are required appointments with federal authorities to discuss immigration cases; four were apprehended in targeted arrests; two at immigration court; and two more in other ways, according to a network statement.
October saw three more confirmed arrests than September, when seven individuals were detained during ICE check-ins, seven in targeted arrests, six at immigration court and one in another manner, according to the statement.
Eighteen of the people, who were residents of Belmont, Burlingame, Daly City, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Pacifica, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Mateo and South San Francisco, were men over the age of 18.
To date San Mateo County has not experienced immigration raids on the street based on race or language, workplace raids or checkpoint operations at schools and hospitals, according to the network.
“Even with an increase in detentions at ICE Check-Ins, it remains true that the vast majority of people who go to their ICE Check-Ins are not detained,” according to the network statement.
People who miss check-ins have an increased risk of future detention at their next check-in or in a targeted arrest. Network officials recommend people call the hotline to request accompaniment at a future check-in and request immediate legal consultation if they missed a check-in or other requirement.
During targeted arrests federal agents look for a specific person or people in the same family, most often by waiting outside of their house but occasionally by knocking on the person’s door or detaining them in their car, according to the rapid response network.
Legal experts recommend each person remain calm and learn their constitutional rights, like remaining silent or refusing to sign documents, in order to mitigate unjust arrests.
“Some among us have cause to be more worried than others, yet all of us are on edge,” Lythcott-Haims wrote. “This is not how Democracy is supposed to function.”
Resources:
- San Mateo County rapid response hotline: 203-666-4472
- Santa Clara County rapid response hotline: 408-290-1144
- San Francisco rapid response hotline: 415-200-1548
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