‘I just trusted his uniform‘ South Monterey County resident describes unusual law enforcement stop on Jolon Road

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By George B. Sánchez-Tello

Out of the darkness on a country road in Southern Monterey County that meanders on and off Fort Hunter Liggett, a white truck suddenly trailed María Guadalupe Orozco, a young woman driving alone on a mid-January Friday night. The flicker of the headlights worried her. Then flashing police lights atop the vehicle brought a momentary feeling of reprieve.

What followed felt anything but typical for someone who has driven up and down that road for much of her life. 

It was the beginning of an encounter with a man in camouflage that echoes a recent rash of traffic stops that ended with immigration detentions. This would not be the case for Orozco, not her real name, who is a citizen of the United States of America and native Monterey County educator. 

Orozco said she was stopped Jan. 16 on Jolon Road on Fort Hunter Liggett. The stop and its circumstances felt strange in a way she couldn’t fully explain until learning that similar traffic stops on Jolon Road were leading to deportations among the region’s undocumented residents. She said she contacted Voices of Monterey Bay to share her story, raise awareness of the immigration detentions and hopefully protect others. 

Monterey County Solidarity Network, a volunteer group helping immigrants uphold their constitutional rights and assist them in case of detentions, confirmed in a social media post that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had detained a Monterey County Resident on the same road that night — not long after her encounter. The Solidarity Network has reported at least ten immigration detentions have occurred on Jolon Road since Dec. 30. 

The traffic stop experienced by Orozco follows a pattern described independently by a local immigration attorney.   

A U.S. Army Public Affairs official previously said military police do not comment on law enforcement operations. Calls and emails to federal immigration agencies have not been returned. 

Orozco works in East San José and is from the Salinas Valley. Her extended family lives in South Monterey County. She is part of her family’s first generation born in the United States after arriving from Mexico. Orozco requested anonymity because she is concerned that revealing her name and other details would endanger her family.

For more than five years, Orozco has made the regular weekend drive of more than 100 miles from her home in Santa Clara County to her family home in South Monterey County. She is familiar with Jolon Road after exiting U.S. Highway 101. It is not uncommon to drive large stretches without seeing other motorists. She is also used to the dark rural roads without street lighting. 

“Out here it’s pitch black. There’s no flood lights, no city lights. There’s nothing, not even from the base,” Orozco said. 

The road is a common route to Lake San Antonio, she added. 

“San Antonio Lake is where we grew up camping, river floating. It’s where so many of us grew up going to,” Orozco remembered. “It’s not uncommon for campers and boaters to go through.”

Most people on their way to Lake San Antonio don’t even realize they drive onto Fort Hunter Liggett when they’re on Jolon Road, she added. 

“Going southbound, there’s no indicator that you’re leaving base property or entering base property,” she explained. “It just gives you speed limits and that it will be enforced.”

Orozco noted there is a small sign facing the northbound lane. 

Her father has been pulled over by military police before, for missing turn signals and inoperative brake lights, she said. Those stops were always cordial and procedural, she added. But getting pulled over on Jan. 16 felt different, Orozco said.

Orozco recalled she left Santa Clara County around 6 p.m. that night. Her traveling companion was an 11-year-old dog. Around 7:45 p.m., she was driving south on Jolon Road. Orozco was behind a white pickup truck. The truck pulled over, onto the shoulder of the road, waited for her to pass and made a U-turn to follow a white sedan that was headed north in the opposing lane of traffic. 

Less than 10 minutes later, Orozco saw yellow headlights far behind her, in her rear-view mirror. The lights started to get closer as the vehicle approached, she said. The truck came so close it seemed to be tailgating her, she remembered. The driver flicked the lights — switching them on and off.

“That freaked me out,” Orozco said. “As a single woman, I’m strong, but I’m already thinking someone is going to pull you over and potentially harm you. I felt intimidated.”

Orozco said she sped up to create space on the road. 

“They were tailing me closer and closer. It was a minute and a half, maybe three, of them tailing me,” Orozco remembered. “At one point, I almost called my dad. When I thought to call my dad for help, the police put on their lights: blue and red and white lights.”

Except it wasn’t the police. 

The lights were initially calming, Orozco remembers, because at least she knew it was law enforcement and not someone with ill intent.

She pulled off the road and lowered the front-seat windows on the driver and passenger sides. Having lived in the city and been pulled over by police before, she anticipated they would walk right up to the car, but that didn’t happen, which puzzled her. 

A man in an army-green camouflage uniform approached Orozco’s car from the driver’s side, but stood seven to 10 feet away, she estimates — practically in the road. 

“I was so spooked, I wasn’t scanning for anything. I just trusted his uniform,” Orozco remembered.

The man’s mannerisms and speech indicated he seemed confused about who he had pulled over, she said, and his reaction was disconcerting. 

“It made me concerned and made me second-guess what was going to happen next,” Orozco said.

The man asked her if she was aware she had a tail light out. Orozco asked him if it was the brake light. The man responded that he thought so, but wasn’t sure.

“He didn’t even know,” Orozco recalled. “Coming from the city, police officers are assertive and will tell you to change your brake light.”

The man then asked for her driver’s license. Orozco obeyed, handing him her California license. Her voice was shaking and she told the man the way he had sped up behind her was scary. The man apologized, she remembered. 

The man returned to his truck with Orozco’s license. About 90 seconds later, he walked back to her car, approaching on the passenger side. She remembers the man asked her about some unique features on her car, but while she was explaining, they were interrupted. 

“Someone radioed him in and was demanding answers,” Orozco recalled. “He said: ‘Yeah, no, it’s only a verbal for tonight. We’re going to let them go.’”

The radio call indicated another person was aware of the stop and awaited instruction from the man that had pulled her over, Orozco said. 

The man returned her driver’s license and told her to enjoy her meal: A fast food bag was visible in the car. 

Orozco received no ticket, written warning or documentation from the traffic stop. 

“None at all, which was another weird thing,” Orozco said. “He told his guy on the radio it was a verbal, but he did not tell me this was a warning. That was another thing. Police usually give you a warning and tell you you have x amount of time to fix your light.”

Free to go, Orozco continued home, but was worried. 

“I was on edge,” she said. “I was consistently checking if anybody was behind me. That feels uncomfortable when you’re headed home.”

Once at home, Orozco shared her experience with her father. 

“He also thought it was very strange,” she said. “He has also heard rumors, whispers and speculations that people are feeling intimidated.”

Since the traffic stop, she has decided not to drive Jolon Road at night anymore when visiting her family. 

The following  week, on Wednesday, Jan. 21 Orozco received a message on Instagram from an aunt who lives in the Salinas Valley. Orozco didn’t watch the video in the message until the next morning, while she was preparing for work. 

The video is the testimony of Francisco Galicia, a Mexican national who was recently detained  on Jolon Road and later deported. Galicia was returning from a fishing trip at Lake San Antonio when he was stopped and then detained by immigration agents. The video ends warning people to avoid the road.

Monterey County Solidarity Network has contacted Galicia and verified his claims. 

“I said, ‘Yup, that’s exactly what potentially could have happened,‘” Orozco said. 

Orozco wonders if something more than her brake light prompted that stop on Jolon Road. She believes her privilege as a citizen preempted immigration involvement, though she is aware of U.S. citizens being detained.  

“Was it my license that saved me? Was it my dog and them not wanting to deal with a missing dog?” Orozco wondered. “There were so many things that could have happened.”

“It was evident they had a preplanned strategy and decided not to follow through with whatever that was,” she said. 

When she learned about immigration detentions on Jolon Road near Fort Hunter Liggett, Orozco said she was worried about erosion of public trust in the military as well as law enforcement. 

“ICE is different from military, but this is showing the Monterey County area they are united together in an area that is 90-99 percent Latino and immigrant,” Orozco said. “It’s a huge blow; to the high schoolers, our  4-H kids; anyone and everybody that is not only afraid of ICE but now potentially scared of our military, our soldiers, that were sworn to protect and serve.”

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