Men in black t-shirts and skater shoes claiming to be law enforcement on Tuesday hustled a man out of an East San Jose nonprofit employment center, handcuffed him and drove off in an unmarked SUV.
Santa Clara County’s Rapid Response Network later confirmed the men in black were ICE agents. They were not wearing masks, a trademark of ICE agents in other cities that's now the basis of a legal confrontation between California and the federal government.
Workers said the SUV had been outside the center since 6am.
After the doors opened at 9am, the men in black t-shirts came in through the back and front saying they were police. Workers said the three men showed no ID and produced no warrants, but they did have a deportation order for the man who was taken into custody.
ConXión to Community President and CEO Rose Amador .
Photo by Vicente Vera
The surprise morning incident is sending shockwaves throughout the city’s undocumented immigrant community and their supporters who see the incident as an attack on a sacred cultural space serving more than just the Latino community.
San Jose Inside reached out to ICE for comment, but the agency did not respond.
ConXión to Community President and CEO Rose Amador had celebrated her retirement party just days before she described receiving a gut punch like no other — a man hauled off by federal immigration officers at her decades-long place of employment.
“They did see what we have here — and they might come back,” Amador said in an interview. “San Jose is a sanctuary city and this has always been a safe place for our clients. We want to keep it that way.”
She spent Tuesday afternoon phoning friends, calling in favors and twisting arms to quickly organize a united response to the unprecedented arrest.
Security camera footage from ConXión to Community's Story Road site viewed by San Jose Inside show a man walking within the “Day Worker Center” among at least 12 other people at 9:17am. A plainclothed man walks through the open entrance and grabs the worker before pulling handcuffs out of his jeans to detain the unknown man.
The nonprofit’s workers say the men who executed the arrest had verbally identified themselves as “police” — but failed to produce any physical identification before driving away with the detainee to an unknown destination.
The atmosphere was tense as the remaining day laborers quietly crowded the doorway to watch the commotion before scurrying back upon realizing it was an immigration enforcement operation.
The Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network is keeping the identity of the detained man confidential to protect his family's privacy.
Sequestered to the back of the building, Amador and her confidants met with community leaders like Sean Allen of the NAACP Silicon Valley branch to drum up support.
Though an isolated arrest, according to nonprofit immigrant community advocates familiar with the case, those working day-to-day with the community fear what it means for ICE to now be aware of a once-safe space.
The man who was detained was a client of ConXión who was receiving support from the nonprofit for employment opportunities.
Staff members were confronted by men claiming to be law enforcement who asked about the client before one of the men recognized the client as an individual with detention orders — thus a self-identified law enforcement officer pushed him out of the building into custody.
“The city can support us by helping with security,” Amador said.
“We live day-to-day as a nonprofit, of course we’ve been cut back a lot and we don’t have the funds to secure the place the way it should be. There’s other nonprofit organizations using this building. We want to continue providing our services.”
Footage from an outside security camera reviewed by San Jose Inside shows multiple men taking the detained man to the back of an SUV before driving off. Staff members said the vehicle was stationed outside the day worker center since around 6 a.m. Tuesday.
“I don’t understand why they were out there so early, we aren’t even open at 6am,” ConXión to Community Vice President & COO Lori Chavez said. “There’s just a lot of questions.”
East San Jose Councilmember Peter Ortiz, who recently introduced a resolution mandating federal law enforcement to identify themselves, said he’s organizing a news conference for Wednesday with the city’s undocumented community advocates to criticize the recent ICE detention.
“The use of plain-clothed officers, particularly when they misidentify themselves as local police, erodes trust in public institutions and spreads fear through our neighborhoods,” Ortiz said Tuesday. “No resident should have to live in fear of being abducted in our city.”
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Keep arresting those who break the law.
Sanctuary for those who unlawfully invaded our country is sedition. I look forward to seeing our local elected officials who are funding the obstruction of federal law enforcement with our tax dollars being arrested, as well.
That’s what I voted for. I appreciate the work of our ICE Agents and the steadfast focus of the Trump Administration securing our border and removing all of those who are here ILLEGALLY.
Agreed, Sir. Councilman Ortiz is the biggest offender of protecting those who are here illegally.
“This was not only an abduction of one of our neighbors, it was an attack on the trust our immigrant community has built here in San Jose,” District 5 Councilmember Peter Ortiz said at a Wednesday news conference.
Did you ever notice how when our politicians who support illegal aliens living in our Country, they love to refer to them as “our immigrant community” and conveniently leave out the work ILLEGAL.?
The article repeatedly complains about the agents showing “no ID” and “no warrants,” and failing to produce “any physical identification”—then calls one of them a “self-identified law enforcement officer.” Notice how carefully the article uses every synonym under the sun in order to avoid the irony that would be introduced by calling the officers “undocumented”—since the “undocumented” are precisely the people that the article wants to protect.
If the use of “plain-clothed officers” “erodes trust in public institutions,” imagine what the previous administration accomplished among the American populace when it let in millions of people who showed “no ID.” … Oh, wait; there’s no need to imagine that. You can read the results plainly in the election that occurred last November.
If the “incident is sending shock waves throughout the city’s ‘undocumented immigrant’ (read: ‘illegal-alien invader”) community, perhaps they should go home and come back “documented.” There. Problem solved! … Well, except that a bunch of bleeding-heart Libs who make money off the illegals might be out of some dinero.
With all due respect! Officers without proper attire and identification are no better than thugs with a weapon and abusive power to violate a person’s rights. If we’re are going to proceed with deportation of those who enter the US without proper identification then we need to abide our court system and issuing proper documents before we can proceed accordingly. Only then we should follow the directive of the law. In the same way, this directive should apply to all nationalities rather than just targeting one in particular. Yet that is not what is happening, Latinos in general are being stereotyped as all illegals and violating their right which subject our government to open lawsuits for targeting. In which case, it serves the right for violating them.
It is interesting how some people think it’s ok not to follow due process. No badge, no warrant, no uniform and no vehicle with official markings. I get it is only required if you are not a person of color.
Nope, those don’t look like any kind of cops to me. The nonprofit might consider installing 12 gauges under their desks in case those kidnappers come back again. No way to identify yourself as a cop? Get ready to get hit by the second amendment.
Arrest the dude who took the 50k! Not the hard working people who just to be good citizens.
The integrity of our legal system depends on consistency, accountability, and fairness in enforcement. Officers operating without proper attire, badges, or identification erode public trust and are indistinguishable from individuals misusing power for personal gain. Such actions risk undermining both constitutional protections and the legitimacy of law enforcement itself.
If our nation requires individuals entering the United States to carry proper documentation, then our own institutions must also follow due process and provide clear, lawful documentation before proceeding with deportation or other enforcement actions. Failure to do so contradicts the principles of our judicial system and opens the door to arbitrary or abusive practices.
Moreover, enforcement must be applied equally to all nationalities and communities. Singling out Latinos—or any group—for heightened scrutiny or enforcement based on stereotypes rather than evidence is discriminatory and unconstitutional. Such practices not only violate civil rights but also expose the government to legal liability and undermine public confidence in the fairness of our policies.
Equal application of the law is a constitutional mandate. If individuals are expected to comply with identification and documentation requirements, officers and institutions must be held to the same standard. Only through consistent, transparent, and lawful procedures can enforcement actions maintain legitimacy and avoid the appearance of bias or abuse of power.
For these reasons, policy directives must ensure:
All officers conducting enforcement are clearly identified and accountable.
Deportation and related actions proceed only with proper judicial documentation.
Enforcement is applied equally across all nationalities, free of discrimination.
Adhering to these principles not only safeguards individual rights but also strengthens the credibility of our immigration system and upholds the rule of law.
The immigration law was broken back in 1948. WE are NOT invading this Country, we are just coming back to our land/home (Aztlán). Imagine? The Trump administration removing all those who are here ILLEGALLY since 1948… Nobody is illegal in a Stolen Land! San José got its Independence from Spain back in 1810, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) was signed February 2, 1848. This land was leased for 100 years and the U.S.A. never gave this land back to México. STOP! We are against discrimination, we are against injustice, and Disobeying unjust laws is a moral responsibility!
This wrong on so many levels by saying they were police when it was ICE. You should be arresting Honan who took 50k and was recorded doing it. Leave these hard working people alone.
Our community is made up of hardworking men and women who give so much yet are treated with so little respect. Watching people be taken from a place that was meant to be safe cuts deep. Nobody should live in fear just for wanting to provide for their families. This is not just about immigration; it’s about humanity. I hope we can all stand together and raise our voices against discrimination, because when one of us is targeted, the dignity of us all is at stake!
And Mexico is somehow any different than the US when it comes to occupying stolen lands? Convenient that you start the clock in 1848. What was Mexico in 1748? Spanish….and in 1548? Just because Mexico couldn’t hold on to what they themselves stole doesn’t make them righteous victims of US Colonialism. It makes them the weaker colonials.