Local law enforcement agencies worry that fears of ICE could compromise cooperation.

A helicopter surveying ag fields near Pajaro and law enforcement officers wearing green uniforms on the 1400 block of San Juan Road turned on alarm bells in the community on Wednesday, July 16.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department was serving a search warrant with assistance from the California Department of Cannabis Control and California Department of Fish and Wildlife, but many local residents believed it was an immigration raid.

Rumors quickly spread on social media. People thought it was U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with a raid mirroring those that happened in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties a few days prior. Farmworker Jaime Alanis Garcia was severely injured when he fell from a greenhouse roof in Camarillo during the raid, and later died from his injuries.

Those fears turned out to be misplaced. An officer from an unidentified participating agency was recorded speaking into a camera in a video that was posted (and later removed) on Instagram by an anonymous account under the name Salinas Chronicle. “We’re serving a search warrant related to illicit cannabis activity. That’s all that’s going on. No, ICE is not here,” the officer says.

Monterey County Sheriff’s Cmdr. Andres Rosas, an agency spokesperson, says the local sheriff was notified in advance of the cannabis farm investigation, but did not participate. The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office also did not issue any statements about who was or was not present, deferring instead to officers from other agencies on the scene. “We can’t put information out if it potentially jeopardizes an investigation,” Rosas says.

He adds that state agencies provide courtesy notifications to local law enforcement before taking actions like these, while federal agencies (like ICE) may choose to or not. “Federal agencies do not have to notify us of anything,” Rosas says.

While local agencies are cautious not to release information that could jeopardize other organizations’ investigations, some departments have decided to release information about ICE immediately after local activity, hoping to cut down on rumors.

“We want to give our residents real information so they’re not acting off of misinformation. Misinformation often causes chaos, and that is not what we want to be doing here in Seaside,” Seaside Police Chief Nick Borges says.

He adds they share information because communication is key to building trust. “I don’t want to lose anyone who will only report crime to us. My concern is that if there’s fear in our community, people are not going to report if they’re a victim of a crime,” Borges says.

That’s a sentiment that Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto has shared. Speaking at a press conference in support of immigrant communities in June, alongside officials from Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties, she said, “Public safety isn’t served by fear… it’s built through trust.”