Sacramento’s immigrant community has been scared of a major Trump crackdown. Is it happening?
Kellen Dunlap had sat around for over an hour on Thursday, and no new tips about immigration officials heading for another target were coming in, so he grabbed his phone and looked through his messages to make sure he wasn’t missing anything.
Dunlap, 43, is a volunteer observer for the activist group NorCal Resist. For years, he and others have regularly responded to calls and text messages from people fearful about federal agents in the Sacramento area.
As he scrolled through his phone in the group’s Arden Arcade office, Dunlap was noticing a major change: The number of calls the hotline received had dropped off steadily in recent days.
Despite Donald Trump’s vow to “launch the largest deportation program in American history” on his first day back in the White House, federal authorities have not yet conducted any major operations in the Sacramento area.
Widespread fear about immigration arrests and removals have not faded, but it appears to have diminished a little. At least for now.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials did not respond to a request for data on the agency’s recent arrest totals in Sacramento County.
NorCal Resist monitors the hotline 24/7 and works with other groups to bail out immigrants and provide legal assistance. They make up one of many so-called rapid response networks in California and across the country.
As of Thursday morning, Dunlap said the group had only received one tip so far that day. And no concerned residents had reported any through social media.
That, he said, is “a good thing.”
A busy day of calls
The slow pace was a stark change from a week earlier.
That morning, Dunlap was also at NorCal Resist’s office waiting for tips when he suddenly grabbed a notepad.
“We got a call,” he said, before quickly walking towards a colleague who was on the phone across the room.
A person shared a photo of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle and said it was heading west on Folsom Boulevard towards downtown Sacramento.
Dunlap scribbled on the pad, pulled out his keys and headed towards to a sport utility vehicle that was parked just outside of the office’s front door.
Concerns about U.S. Border Patrol were especially high after agents in January arrested dozens of people in Kern County during a high-profile operation. It came in the waning days of Joe Biden’s presidency. But there were fears that it was a sign of what was to come under Trump and that Sacramento could be targeted soon.
Dunlap knew the call could end up being nothing serious, like a person driving from one office to another. But he still wanted to check it out. Photos of the vehicle could be posted online and spread quickly.
“I can at least tell people that Folsom Boulevard is clear,” he said.
Barely out of the parking lot, another tip came in. Someone reported seeing a possible ICE vehicle near Nimbus Dam, about 15 miles northeast of downtown Sacramento.
This time, there were no photos or videos. Dunlap was still on his way to Folsom Boulevard when he got another alert: There was a checkpoint in Woodland and a person in uniform was pulling people over.
Dunlap currently doesn’t have a job. That allows him to follow up on multiple tips at once and to be available to do so seven days a week.
“I’m capable of driving around all day,” he said.
He is one of a core group of people that regularly respond.
NorCal Resist’s mission
NorCal Resist supports abolishing ICE and the hotline has several main goals: to dispel rumors of raids or other enforcement actions that can easily spread on social media, to videotape and photograph any real arrests as they take place, let people know their rights during an operation in progress and to provide legal help to family members of people arrested.
“It’s fine to inform people of their rights, it’s fine to videotape in public places the enforcement activities of Immigration and Customs and Enforcement,” said Kevin Johnson, a law professor at UC Davis. “The clear line is you can’t physically interfere or obstruct immigration officials from arresting people.”
There were no signs of a Border Patrol vehicle as Dunlap drove towards downtown earlier this month. He stopped outside ICE’s Sacramento office near the Capitol and walked around a gated parking lot. He didn’t see the vehicle.
Dunlap shared that with other volunteers. He was told the checkpoint in Woodland was for vehicle emissions, not immigration reasons.
Dunlap drove around Nimbus Dam. He didn’t see any ICE vehicles but did see ones marked with “California State Parks” and a badge. The dam was also close to a California Department of Fish and Wildlife office.
Dunlap was barely on the road back to Arden Arcade when he received another tip: an ICE sighting at an apartment complex in the Natomas area.
Dunlap cut across Sacramento towards Interstate 5, where he then was held up in bumper-to-bumper traffic. The time it took to check on tips day after day didn’t bother him, he said.
“If you don’t clear it up, people are just going to be scared the rest of the day, week.”
Dunlap was still stuck on the highway when another volunteer observer made it to the apartment and said they did not see any federal officials.
Now, though, he had another tip to follow up on: A report of ICE at a housing complex in West Sacramento. No agency vehicles or agents were there by the time he arrived.
Dunlap was still in the complex’s parking lot when yet another report came in. This time, it was about ICE vehicles outside of a West Sacramento grocery store. He showed up only a short while later, but there weren’t any there. Workers in the store said they hadn’t seen any either. One of Dunlap’s colleagues later determined it was a prank.
The group had received at least six tips in fewer than three hours.
“We weren’t getting calls like this a month ago,” he said before leaving the office for the day.
‘Very slow day’
On Thursday, Dunlap didn’t head out once to check on a tip in the five hours he was at the office. One person contacted the hotline just before 8 a.m. to report a possible ICE arrest near an elementary school in South Sacramento. There were no signs of federal agents when another volunteer showed up to check it out.
In the afternoon, Dunlap received word that immigration officials could be in Live Oak, a city about an hour’s drive north. A volunteer in the area said they didn’t see anything.
Dunlap wondered if the group’s efforts to try and quickly confirm whether or not immigration authorities are actually in the area has helped stomp out rumors before they spread widely and lessen some fear. Earlier this month, on separate days, it shared on social media that a report of ICE on the Sacramento State campus was a false alarm but that ICE activity in Lincoln was confirmed.
Around 4:30 p.m., Dunlap pulled out his phone to check his messages one more time before leaving the office.
“Very slow day,” he said.
There were no new tips.
This story was originally published February 14, 2025 at 12:13 PM with the headline "Sacramento’s immigrant community has been scared of a major Trump crackdown. Is it happening?."
