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A Mountain View man well known in the Castro neighborhood community was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in a Tuesday morning raid. Advocates claim he was not the target, and that ICE was seeking to arrest the home’s prior resident.
Emergency alerts sent through Santa Clara County’s Rapid Response Network reported ICE activity taking place at 7:41 a.m. on the 500 block of Chiquita Avenue. The man — Gabiono Camacho, a former Mistral parent known for selling fruit across the street from the school campus — was detained by people wearing ICE jackets and driving unmarked vehicles, according to accounts of the incident.
ICE officials at the regional office in San Francisco did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Camacho’s daughter, Liliana Camacho, told the Voice she was at work at 7:30 a.m. when she got the call from her mother that ICE agents had her father outside the house in handcuffs. Camacho said she was shocked, at first telling her mom to make sure it wasn’t just a confrontation with local law enforcement.
“I said you gotta make sure it’s them, you can’t tell me ICE is outside the house and find out it’s the police, and she said ‘Yes, it’s ICE!” she said. “She was screaming, I didn’t know what to do.”
Members of the local immigration support group Listos Mountain View believe the detainment was a case of mistaken identity: The home had been receiving immigration-related mail, likely orders of deportation, for someone who had previously lived at the address. A lawyer representing the man said he had no warrants of any kind against him, and that he was released after posting a $5,000 bail, according to Listos members.
Camacho said it was a frenzied endeavor to get her father out of ICE custody, getting referred from one lawyer to another and moving as quickly as possible to post bail. At one point she said her family members spent hours not knowing if the bail would be posted in time for a looming afternoon deadline, when he would be transferred further away to Yuba County.
During the phone call, Camacho said she could hear her father yelling to her mother to stay inside. Had she come outside, Camacho said both her parents could have been detained and nobody would have known what happened to them.
Camacho said she didn’t know about the Rapid Response Network prior to the incident. She said that community members rallied to support her family and stood watch outside the home for any subsequent ICE activity Tuesday. This was also her family’s first run-in with immigration enforcement agents, and it was frightening to think her family could be separated.
“We were very scared and frightened,” she said. “We have always been a complete family, and we can’t believe, out of nowhere, that we’re not going to have a dad.”
A spokesman for the Rapid Response Network said the family was contacted shortly after the initial reports of ICE activity, and were able to dispatch an attorney to assist in legal support for Gabino Camacho and his family.
A handful of residents spoke at the Mountain View City Council’s Feb. 26 meeting, urging elected officials to prioritize the protection of the city’s vulnerable residents, including immigrants. Resident Miguel Sanchez told council members that the man was incidentally detained and was transported to Morgan Hill, then Stockton and was en route to Yuba City before he was released and allowed to return home. He said the city needs to make efforts to prevent its residents from being treated this way.
“They weren’t looking for him,” Sanchez said. “They were looking for someone else in the house.”
Listos member Tania O’Connell, a Mistral parent, told council members that the incident has shaken the community, leaving many families afraid to leave the house or bring their kids to school. She said what happened Tuesday morning isn’t an isolated incident, and that ICE has more than once come to pick someone up in Mountain View who hasn’t been in the city for years. Many of the people ICE officials are searching for have been priced out and replaced by hard-working members of the community like the one who was detained, O’Connell said.
“He brings a beautiful, colorful aspect to our city, and it makes it especially personal that someone who is so visible and is such a good example for our community is treated this way,” she said.
The man detained Tuesday was fortunate in some ways, O’Connell told the Voice. His family was able to quickly contact a lawyer and establish that he had no criminal record or previous immigration charges against him, and have him released on bail while he was en route to Yuba City. He was back in Mountain View by 8 p.m. Tuesday evening, just an hour after the comments to the City Council.
“Because his family was savvy enough, and had access to bail money, our neighbor was able to come home by the end of the day,” she said.
The City Council was scheduled for a goal-setting session on Thursday, Feb. 28, and speakers asked the council to reiterate its goal of protecting vulnerable populations, including those fearing deportation by federal law enforcement. The goal was crafted shortly after the 2016 presidential election.
Camacho said she and her family have thought about the threat of deportation in the past, but the idea of it happening in Mountain View seemed impossible. She never would have expected what took place on Tuesday, she said.
“I grew up in my Mountain View. I have never experienced something like that before,” she said. “I could not imagine myself in a situation like that.”
Mountain View Police Department spokeswoman Katie Nelson confirmed that ICE notified the department of its activity in the city Tuesday morning, and reaffirmed that the police department does not participate in immigration enforcement activities. The department’s policy manual states in no uncertain terms that the department “will not detain or arrest any person on the basis of a person’s citizenship or status under civil immigration laws.” This policy is consistent across Santa Clara County, and was adopted prior to California laws limiting law enforcement’s involvement with federal immigration authorities.
Following a major operation that led to the arrest of 232 people in Northern California last year, ICE officials released a statement admitting that at-large arrests in local neighborhoods and work sites inevitably result in “collateral arrests” of people who are not the targets. The statement claims this must be done because sanctuary city policies prevent federal immigration enforcement officials from focusing on arrests at jails and prisons, where transfers are “safer for ICE officers and the community.”
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors agreed in September to boost funding for the Rapid Response Network from $100,500 to $550,000, aimed at helping the organization provide emergency legal representation and deportation defense services. The network also has a “rapid alert” messaging system for advocates to monitor ICE activities, including the raid that took place Tuesday.
Well I hope it least he has a business license to sell fruit across the street. I mean Google didn’t have one for a while, so maybe it’s no big deal if he doesn’t.
thank you Randy. I’m so tired of explaining how difficult if not impossible is to apply for citizenship. This man I know, and he works so hard, not asking or taking anything from any of us and/or (government). Please educate yourself prior to commenting, it does show your ignorance when you just go with what “everyone” is claiming/saying. Think about it, one of his kids could be one of your children’s friends/ classmate. He could be your neighbor. We are living in a time in place where compassion is not there anymore.
This is another clear example of over-reach by ICE! Going to an address looking for one individual, not finding that person, so they just take who ever is there now. No sense in going out to arrest someone and returning empty handed.
A comprehensive reform of our entire immigration system is so desperately needed. ICE should have it’s purpose rewritten to capture criminal felonious immigrants, and not looking at everyone with an accent as potentially criminal. Yes, technically anyone who has overstayed their visa, or who entered the country illegally is a “criminal”, but that criminality should not be reason enough to seize individuals and hold them indefinitely.
Don’t forget, REGISTER, and then VOTE.
Just read the entire article. Not a word as to whether said person was actually in the country legally. Laws are not just words, you know…
If he was released on $5K bail, then he has to have been charged with something. Is he legally in the US? Just because he was not the target, does not dismiss the fact that there was a reason to arrest him. Why does the MV-Voice choose to not provide all the facts?
What’s even more disturbing is that the county is spending a half million dollars to encourage illegal activity and thwart lawful law enforcement activity. What is wrong with people? I could think of a lot better things to spend a half mil on.
The loudest voices are usually the least informed. Unlawful presence in the United States is not, in fact, a crime, but instead a civil violation. Closer to a speeding ticket, which endangers for more people than otherwise law-abiding residents that are undocumented.
I’d rather have 100 unlawfully present, otherwise law-abiding community members than either @Greg or @Kiva. For example, let’s compare how the man in the article makes a living against how our home-grown @Greg David does. It’s an easy call, which I doubt even Greg will be able to defend.
Why doesn’t the City Council or the Mayor warn the MV immigrant community about ICE raids if they know they are coming as the Mayor of Oakland has done? Or the MVPD and/or City Council could at least tip off the Rapid Response Network so they could warn the immigrant community about an upcoming ICE raid. The leaders of this city need to do much more to protect our vulnerable communities and value diversity!