ICE was in Vallejo at least 21 times in 2025, public records show

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VALLEJO – On 21 separate occasions in 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted immigration enforcement actions in Vallejo after alerting the Vallejo Police Department, according to documents provided by the department. 

As a courtesy to local law enforcement, federal immigration agents will often call the local police department to notify them that they’ll be coming into a city to conduct immigration enforcement activities. However, according to ICE, it doesn’t always send the notifications before arriving.

“ICE works with federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to conduct targeted immigration enforcement operations,” an ICE spokesperson told the Vallejo Sun. “Partnerships with law enforcement are critical to having the resources needed to arrest criminal illegal aliens across the country.” 

ICE “typically notifies local authorities before arriving in a city to conduct enforcement operations,” the spokesperson said. “However, in special circumstances, particularly when jurisdictions throughout California fail to cooperate or communicate with ICE, this type of advance notice is broken.”

In a February 2025 press release, the Vallejo Police Department stated that they do not engage in federal civil immigration enforcement or assist in immigration operations. In 2017, during President Donald Trump’s first term in office, the Vallejo City Council also passed a resolution naming the city a safe haven for immigrants, though it stopped short of designating Vallejo as a sanctuary city. 

Because federal immigration agents do not consistently alert local authorities, the notifications to the Police Department are the minimum number of times that ICE has been present in the city. 

The Vallejo Sun obtained the documents through a public records request to the city of Vallejo for any courtesy calls that ICE sent in 2025. According to the records, ICE called the Vallejo Police Department 25 times in 2025 to notify them of immigration enforcement actions. 

The police incident reports note that four of those calls were “cancelled by dispatch” or “cancelled by the reporting party.” It’s unclear why the four calls were canceled.

Many of these enforcement actions occurred in areas where a majority of households make less than $75,000 a year, and 40% make under $25,000.

According to demographic maps the city adopted in 2020, many of these sites are ethnically diverse, with a relatively even spread of Black, Latino, and Asian residents. Many of them are also immigrant households: according to district maps, an average of 23% of residents in these areas are immigrants. 

Some of the areas have a higher concentration of Latino households. For example, agents twice went to the area around Newell Street and Mobile Lane near Interstate 80; according to the demographic map, up to 65% of households in that area are Latino.

The police incident reports show that when federal agents call police to notify them, they give a description of the cars they’ll be arriving in. For example, on the Feb. 1 call, the report notes that the agents would be in a “blk ford explorer, blk ford focus, and gry explorer.” Similarly, on April 23, the notes say they’d be in a “blk hyun son, gry kia suv, gry gmc suv, and dodge suv.” 

The police noted in nearly all of the records that there would be “no assistance needed” and that the federal agents would simply “call back when done.”

Most of the enforcement actions occurred in the early morning. Of the 25 notification calls, 22 of them came in between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. 

The records show that the police department received notifications from February to September, with no courtesy calls in July or from October to December.

According to the documents, the agents usually went to just one location, but on March 26 it appears they sent two separate teams to addresses around Louisiana Street and Sonoma Boulevard. On May 6, two separate teams went to addresses around Valle Vista Avenue and Fairgrounds Drive, and also Corcoran Avenue and Stanford Drive. 

The last notifications that the city received in 2025 were on Sept. 24. On that date, agents called the department at 4:25 a.m. to alert them that they would be sending vehicles to six separate locations at the same time.

The incident reports do not explicitly mention if someone was detained during these enforcement actions.

Luis, the hotline coordinator for North Bay Rapid Response Network, a local organization that dispatches legal observers to sites of reported immigration enforcement actions, said that they were aware of eight detentions in Vallejo in 2025. Luis added that they also have records of one detention in Vacaville, 12 in Fairfield, and one detention in Suisun City, for a total of 22 detentions in Solano County last year. 

The Sun also submitted public records requests with the Solano County Sheriff’s Office, and the police departments of Benicia, Fairfield, Vacaville, Dixon, Rio Vista, and Suisun City. 

Fairfield, Vacaville, Suisun City, Rio Vista and Benicia each said that they do not have any records from 2025 of ICE alerting them that they would be in their communities. 

The Dixon public record request is still outstanding; but the Solano County Sheriff’s Department contracts with both Dixon and Rio Vista for policing services, and said it does not have any “responsive records” for courtesy calls from ICE.

A staffer in the records department at Rio Vista’s police station added that they once had a “fraudulent call of someone claiming to represent ICE,” but to his knowledge no one in his office ever received an official call from federal agents.

Fairfield did turn over one ICE courtesy call record, but for this year. According to the incident report, on Jan. 21, 11 agents in tactical gear arrived at Blue Sky Apartments to make an arrest. The report did not disclose the subject, but it noted that the agents would call Fairfield police if they needed help. 

Luis said that the rapid response network doesn’t disclose who has been arrested to protect their privacy, but he said that there seems to be “no specific criteria” for who the federal agents target in the North Bay, and it feels “almost at random.” 

The Trump Administration has maintained that they are only arresting the “worst of the worst,” but less than 14% of immigrants arrested by ICE in 2025 had a violent criminal record, per documents obtained by CBS News.

Luis said that their organization also noticed the pattern of the federal agents appearing before dawn to conduct these enforcement actions. 

“In the early morning hours, there's more isolation as folks are getting ready to go to work or preparing for their day,” said Luis. “So I think it becomes almost easier to conduct these activities without having a big presence or eyes on them.”

Luis said they’re still getting a high volume of calls about rumored ICE sightings in Solano, Napa, and Sonoma counties. Community members often spread word of potential sightings on Instagram and in Facebook community groups. Sometimes the tips are accurate, but other times the organization has to clarify that it’s actually Vallejo police, the sheriff’s office, or private security for a business. 

“It speaks to the anxiousness and state of mind of the community,” said Luis. “If they see any type of law enforcement in the community who isn't showing a badge or who doesn't have any identifying markers, they'll call the hotline. So we try our best to investigate and bring peace to the community by debunking some of these rumors.” 

If a resident sees a potential ICE agent, Luis said their best bet is to call the hotline, which is available 24 hours. “We encourage people to call with firsthand information because that makes the process easier for investigation,” he added. 

When a resident calls in, they often ask why the community member thinks it’s ICE, and if they see any unmarked vehicles or agents not wearing any descriptive badges or logos. Once they have sufficient information, they send out legal observers to verify it themselves. They’ll also contact local law enforcement agencies to confirm if there’s any activity happening in the area.

In regards to the courtesy calls, Luis said it’s important to note that ICE agents arriving in a city doesn’t always mean that someone is going to be detained. He said that the rapid response network is also not seeing mass raids in the North Bay, but rather individual immigration enforcement actions. 

Still, he said it’s important for residents to be aware of what’s happening in their community. 

“Even if you’re not part of the immigrant or undocumented community, just by staying informed and knowing your rights, you might be able to help a community member who is at risk,” said Luis. 

North Bay Rapid Response Network is holding a training to be a legal observer in Vallejo on April 20; interested residents can sign up at the organization’s website.

The number for the North Bay Rapid Response hotline is (707) 800-4544.