Pomona on Edge After Immigration Raid Earlier This Week

A cellphone video captures an armored vehicle along with multiple deputies from the Riverside County Sheriff's Special Investigations Bureau executing a search warrant at an automobile accident repair shop on Holt Avenue early Friday morning.

In the course of the raid, several police officers were seen wearing vests marked with "U.S. Customs and Border Protection." Soon after, complaints regarding the operation began circulating among immigration advocates such as Claudia Bautista, who serves as the executive director at the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center.

Bautista mentioned, 'I spotted at least one license plate from the Department of Homeland Security.' He then informed the mayor about this observation.

The Riverside County Sheriff's Department stated that the Homeland Security Special Response Team assisted them in executing a search warrant. Subsequently, they specified that this was part of a drug enforcement investigation rather than an immigration action.

The warrant was specifically related to an investigation into narcotics," the deputies stated. "The Riverside County Sheriff's Office does not carry out such operations.

The operation happened three days after border patrol agents conducted an operation at a Home Depot in Pomona They detained 10 immigrants. The agents mentioned these individuals had previous charges.

"It seems as though Pomona is becoming a target," Bautista stated.

Sergio Basterrechea is the operations director at God's Pantry, a food bank in Pomona that's run by formerly incarcerated residents. He said that Tuesday's immigration sweep had a huge impact on their distribution this week, as many people became too afraid to come pick up food.

He mentioned that they served around 600 to 700 people on Wednesday. There was roughly an 80% decline, with only approximately 100 families showing up that day.

God's Pantry is a community hub. Basterrechea said one of his workers knew the barber who federal agents arrested on Tuesday.

"People in Pomona are scared," Bautista said. "We know students are not going to school. We know that people are not going to work. This is not going to have just human repercussions, but also economic repercussions on the city."