LOS ANGELES — Border Patrol agents conducted an immigration raid Thursday at a Home Depot parking lot in Sacramento County, in a sign that federal officials are heading deeper into California after focusing on the Los Angeles region in recent weeks.

Gregory K. Bovino, the head of Border Patrol’s El Centro region, said in a produced video that federal agents had begun operations in the Sacramento area, and that at least eight people had been arrested for being in the country without authorization. Sacramento is a nearly 600-mile drive northwest of El Centro, California, and the border with Mexico.

The raid came nearly a week after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to stop indiscriminate immigration arrests in the Los Angeles region. The ruling in the Central District of California did not apply to Sacramento.

The edited video, which was overlaid with the song “Power” by Kanye West, appeared to show people running away from masked federal agents in tactical gear in a Home Depot parking lot.

“Folks, there is no such thing as a sanctuary city,” Bovino said in the video. “There’s no such thing as a sanctuary state.”

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that at least 11 immigrants who were in the U.S. illegally had been arrested in the Sacramento area as of Thursday evening. One person, Bovino said, was arrested Thursday for impeding or assaulting a federal officer during the raid.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said that one man arrested Thursday was a “dangerous serial drug abuser and dealer” who has faced 67 charges, including felony burglary.

“You would not want this man to be your neighbor,” McLaughlin said.

The department did not indicate a criminal history for most of the other immigrants who were detained Thursday.

Kevin McCarty, the mayor of Sacramento, said in a statement on social media Thursday that at least one ICE raid took place at a Home Depot on Florin Road, about 8 miles southeast of the California state Capitol. The store is situated in an unincorporated pocket of Sacramento County adjacent to the city, in a neighborhood that is home to many immigrant communities.

The parking lots of Home Depot stores, which are common gathering spots for day laborers looking for work, have been the targets of numerous immigration raids over the past few weeks.

“These ICE raids are a violation of civil rights and an affront to democracy,” McCarty said. “There’s a difference between deporting criminals and targeting people at Home Depot looking for work to feed their families. These raids are immoral and inhumane. They are intended to instill fear and chaos and cannot be tolerated in our city.”

The federal ruling last week against indiscriminate raids came in response to a lawsuit filed this month by immigrant advocacy groups, led by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and Public Counsel, a nonprofit. The lawsuit accused federal immigration agents of making stops based on racial profiling often public spaces, such as Home Depot parking lots.

The federal government asked an appeals court to temporarily lift the restrictions on operations in the Los Angeles area. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied that request on Wednesday on procedural grounds.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said in a statement that the Border Patrol “should do their jobs — at the border — instead of continuing their tirade statewide of illegal racial profiling and illegal arrests.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Jesus Jiménez
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