On Thursday, Nov. 6, Monterey County Counsel sent a cease-and-desist letter to ICE instructing the federal agency to end its use of County property for immigration enforcement activity, claiming violations of county policy and various parking violations by ICE in recent days.
A few hours later, ICE officers were back in Salinas, outside the Monterey County Jail.
A group of residents gathered for a sit-in outside the jail sallyport, near Constitution Boulevard, starting around 5pm on Nov. 5.
Most of the roughly 50 people were protesters, waving with signs and flags with messages including “Fuck ICE,” “Salinas stand with immigrants” and “No due process is kidnapping,” standing in front of six unmarked vans that were parked outside the jail. (In addition to protesters, the crowd also included attorneys and legal observers.)
Through speakers, they played various hip-hop, reggaeton and Mexican regional music songs including “Ice, Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice, and an ICE-themed song with the same tune of the classic Mexican song, “La del moño colorado.” Other artists in the repertoire include Cardi-B and Los Tucanes de Tijuana.
Over the next three hours, until ICE left the area, the demonstration was mostly peaceful. It turned heated twice, with a least seven ICE agents—most of them masked—getting out of their vehicles and confronting the crowd, and both sides shouting at each other.
The first confrontation happened at 5:30pm. A video provided by a protester records an exchange of words with ICE officers, from their vehicles, instructing protesters, “Move back, move back,” and demonstrators responding, “Are you leaving, are you leaving?” Eventually, ICE agents exit the vehicles and face the protesters; at least one woman, Lisa Navarro, was pushed to the ground.
During the second confrontation, around 6pm, activists showed their discontent toward ICE by shouting through a megaphone, “You’re not allowed here, you’re breaking the law,” “Fuck ICE” and “You’re not welcome here.” ICE agents tried to keep their perimeter clear, with one of them shouting, “Hold the line, hold the line.”
Lisa Navarro, a 35-year-old Salinas resident, showed up at 3pm to begin demonstrating, hours before ICE was even on the scene. “I come from an immigrant family and I will not allow ICE to come into our cities and terrorize our community,” Navarro says.
Navarro says ICE presence in Salinas hasn’t impacted her everyday life, but she has seen changes in her neighborhood. “My neighbors are scared and I need to let them know that I’m here with them,” Navarro adds, noting the streets are emptier and some people are afraid to go to work.
Navarro says youth soccer and football games she’s attended recently have had low attendance. “I’ve seen a lot of practices being canceled because of ICE presence in our community, " Navarro adds. (The Salinas Regional Soccer Complex, on County-owned land, is across Constitution Boulevard from the County campus that including Natividad Medical Center and the jail where ICE has been active. The soccer complex is listed in County Counsel’s cease-and-desist letter to ICE.)
Chair of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors Wendy Root Askew says County leaders are having conversations with state and federal legislators about ICE’s presence locally. She says that the County of Monterey, in collaboration with other counties and the state, will “put an end to this reign of terror that has stepped into our community.”
Root Askew adds, “Our team is working with other teams of attorneys to identify and pursue every legal action that we possibly can to truly keep our community safe.”
Besides sending the cease-and-desist letter to ICE, she notes that County officials placed signs on County parks and facilities referencing its policy of prohibiting ICE’s use of county property for immigration enforcement purposes.
On Thursday night, the jail went into lockdown from about 6pm to 10pm, meaning no inmates were released or booked during that time.
At the area near the sallyport, where permanent signs note that only law enforcement is permitted, there was additional tape. The parking lot entrance at the back of the jail (from Natividad Road) was closed to vehicle traffic, as well as the parking area closest to Natividad hospital.
County officials have noted the proximity of these facilities could dissuade patients from seeking medical care during ICE enforcement activity. “This is incredibly disruptive from an intended intimidation strategy,” Root Askew says, “People are trying to heal 100 yards away from where we are. This is not OK. This is not safe.”
Celina Alejo, a mother of three who lives in Salinas, says in Spanish she showed up after work to join the sit-in. Alejo works as a medical interpreter at various clinics in Salinas, primarily interpreting for farmworkers.
“I’m here for them because I have a job thanks to them,” Alejo says, adding that thanks to farmworkers’ labor, she enjoys fruits and vegetables regularly.
She says her work has dropped in the past few days from a usual seven or eight interpretations per day to just one to three. “It affects me financially and affects me as a human being to watch injustice,” Alejo says.
On Thursday night, ICE agents left the area around 8:05pm. The crowd celebrated, dancing to Mexican regional music once the ICE vans were gone. At least five legal observers remained at the jail as the crowd died down.
The community became aware of ICE presence at the jail after Solidarity Monterey County Rapid Response Network shared a red flag alert, notifying volunteer legal observers that two ICE vans had been observed on Thursday morning. All day, and through much of the past week, legal observers monitored the area.
“We will continue documenting, observing and bringing attention to concerning incidents,” the Solidarity Network shared in a statement.
ICE officials have not responded to a request for comment about how and whether they plan to respond to the County of Monterey’s cease-and-desist letter.