By George B. Sánchez-Tello
At least ten people have been detained by immigration officials after being stopped on Jolon Road in Fort Hunter Liggett since Dec. 30, according to Monterey County Solidarity Network, a volunteer group assisting immigrants against raids and detentions.
Monterey County officials and local law enforcement said they were unaware of incidents on Dec. 30 and Dec. 31 that were described on Central Coast Watchdog, which uses social media to announce police presence throughout the region, and confirmed by Monterey County Solidarity Network.
U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, whose congressional district includes Fort Hunter Liggett, stated in an email she is seeking more details.
“I’m committed to ensuring all federal agents are following the law,” said U.S. Rep. Lofgren in an email. “My office has been in communication with local officials to get more information on this matter.”
An additional series of detentions took place Jan. 16 and 17. The Solidarity Network confirmed at least three individuals were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during those days, although there were likely more.
A local immigration attorney familiar with the traffic stops and detentions agreed to discuss the incidents. The attorney, who collaborates with the Network, requested anonymity, citing fear of harm to themselves, their family and clients in light of the current political atmosphere.
“It’s a hostile environment at this point,” the attorney explained.
“It is illegal in California for local enforcement to conduct traffic stops for immigration enforcement. Military police are allowed to conduct traffic stops on federal property. The question is whether they are collaborating with immigration for enforcement.”
The attorney continued: “I have no way to confirm it was military police, but we suspect it is. We believe it’s not local law enforcement.”
It remains unclear what role military police had in the initial stop or notification of immigration officials.
“The Army does not release information on law enforcement operations,” wrote in an email Amy Phillips, of Army Public Affairs.
Fort Hunter Liggett Military Police referred Voices of Monterey Bay to U.S. Army Public Affairs in Southern Arizona. Army Public Affairs referred Voices to Immigration and Customs Enforcement Public Affairs. ICE Public Affairs then referred Voices to ICE Media, which has not yet responded.
Phone calls and emails to the Pentagon and U.S. Army in Washington, D.C. inquiring about the incidents and Army Reserve policy on cooperation with federal immigration officials have gone unanswered.
Fort Hunter Liggett is a 165,000 acre U.S. Army Reserve training base and the largest of its kind in the country. The base is bordered by Los Padres National Forest, the Santa Lucia Mountains, the Salinas Valley and the southern boundary of Monterey County. The public is allowed to hunt and fish on up to 110,000 acres within its boundaries. The area is known for wild pig hunting and among fishing enthusiasts as a route to Lake San Antonio.
Monterey County Sheriff Tina M. Nieto and King City Police Chief Robert Masterson said neither law enforcement agency was involved in a traffic stop or notifying immigration officials.
“The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office was not involved in the incident you referenced,” wrote Nieto in an email. “Because we did not participate in the stop or any subsequent actions, we do not have firsthand information and cannot verify or refute the details described.”
Nieto added that “it is important for the public to hear directly” from the agencies involved in the traffic stop and detention.
No local law enforcement agency or military police force has publicly acknowledged the incidents nor indicated their role, if any, in the immigration detention.
The traffic stops follow the same pattern, the attorney said. Those detained and their families said they were driving on Jolon Road and remember passing the entrance to Fort Hunter Liggett. A white truck pulled behind the cars, trailing them for a few miles before turning on their police lights, the attorney continued, and initiating a traffic stop. Most of the drivers were cited for minor infractions, like missing or broken tail lights.
While the law enforcement agents returned to their cars to conduct background checks based on drivers’ licenses, immigration vehicles arrived, the attorney said.
Immigration agents — it is unclear if they were Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement or U.S. Customs and Border Protection — arrived in two pairs. Two vehicles parked horizontally in front of the people stopped and another pair of white trucks parked horizontally in the rear, effectively boxing in those pulled over, the attorney described.
“It seemed they were working in coordination,” the attorney said of the immigration agents and law enforcement.
Those detained and their families all said they were nervous and scared, aware of aggressive immigration raids across the country, and didn’t notice identifying details of the white trucks during the traffic stop. However, those detained recall the vehicles did not appear to pertain to local police or sheriff’s deputies, the attorney said.
There is a pattern of people targeted, the attorney added.
“The commonality is the people are all brown, Latinos, and it was on the same road,” the attorney said.
There were at least two video recordings of the encounters, the attorney continued.
In one instance, immigration agents took the phone from a mother and erased her video recording of the stop in exchange for allowing her and her children to go free. The immigration agents took the family’s father and husband, the attorney claimed.
The Monterey County Solidarity Network has not yet been able to obtain a second video of the incidents, she said.
The intersection of Jolon and Mission roads is almost 20 miles outside King City, said Masterson, and is outside King City Police jurisdiction. The intersection was identified as the location of the detentions by commenters on Central Coast Watchdog.
Masterson said in an email that after checking with police personnel, he determined that King City Police were not involved in a call near Fort Hunter Liggett, nor did they stand by to assist immigration agents on either Dec. 30 or 31.
King City Mayor Mike LeBarre wrote in an email that he hadn’t heard anything about the late December incident.
Sgt. Zachary Dunagan of the Salinas Police Department said in an email that Salinas Police, the largest police department in the region, was also not involved.
There has been no response to emails and phone calls to the office of Monterey County Supervisor Chris Lopez, who represents the region.
The Jolon Road detentions on Dec. 30 and 31,came around the same time immigrant rights advocates reported approximately 140 people were apprehended by immigration agents in the Santa Barbara area and cities of Santa Maria and Lompoc. Santa Maria City Council Member Gloria Soto, the California Immigrant Policy Center and other organizations held a press conference to denounce the apprehensions and detentions on Jan. 2.
The area around Fort Hunter Liggett on Jolon Road is rural and isolated, and it remains unclear where immigration agents are arriving from.
Immigrant rights advocates said they need more information, as well as videos and aid from the public to monitor the area as “legal observers” — volunteers who independently monitor and document immigration enforcement activity.
“We’re hoping to get more legal observers trained for that area and all of Monterey County,” the attorney said.
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