Where is the Sacramento Home Depot where Border Patrol made arrests?
The south Sacramento Home Depot on 4641 Florin Road where masked and armed Border Patrol agents took 12 people into custody Thursday morning is on a busy stretch of unincorporated south Sacramento
just south of the city’s Bowling Green neighborhood.
Where is the Florin Road Home Depot?
The home improvement center on Florin Road, targeted as were Home Depots in Southern California raids by federal immigration agents, is in the Southgate Commercial District just east of the intersection of Franklin Boulevard on a commercial corridor about 8 miles south of downtown. Home Depot’s footprint is bordered immediately to the west by Bowling Drive and east by Morrison Creek and East Parkway. Highway 99 is a short drive east of the home improvement center.
Busy corridor
The intersection of Florin Road and Franklin Boulevard is among the busiest in Sacramento. Approximately 41,700 cars per day travel the road east of Franklin, according to the Sacramento County Department of Transportation. Traffic on Florin grows dramatically heading east from East Parkway on the Home Depot’s eastern boundary. Approximately 58,500 vehicles travel east on Florin from East Parkway, according to the county’s transportation department.
What was the scene in the parking lot?
Day laborers reported running in different directions as masked federal agents arrived. “They don’t have a right to take people,” said one undocumented worker. NorCal Resist said one of its volunteer observers was also detained during the raid. A Fox News camera crew was present alongside agents.
What businesses are nearby?
Businesses include 99 Ranch Market, Foot Locker and dd’s Discounts in the Southgate Plaza shopping center along with restaurants and smaller specialty stores. Smaller family-owned businesses such as Stagecoach Restaurant sit on the north side of Florin Road. Farther east is a Walmart Supercenter.
Where is A Parkway located?
A Parkway is a residential street just a few blocks south of the Florin Road Home Depot. At 7:57 a.m., a 911 call was placed from the 4500 block of A Parkway reporting “armed individuals” believed to be “burglarizing” a home. The Sheriff’s Office confirmed the incident involved federal immigration enforcement.
Who carried out the raid?
The enforcement action was led by masked agents from the U.S. Border Patrol El Centro Sector, not Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Right now, we have 11 illegal aliens arrest(ed) and 1 U.S. citizen for obstructing/impeding federal officers and vandalism of government property,” David Kim, assistant chief patrol agent, said in a written statement.
Sgt. Amar Gandhi of the Sheriff’s Office also confirmed CBP’s role and said the Sheriff’s Office does not participate in federal raids.
How the morning unfolded
At 7:47 a.m., the Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call from the Home Depot parking lot. Two minutes later, at 7:49 a.m., dispatch reported that a caller described 15 masked and armed individuals “grabbing people and putting them into vehicles.” At 7:51 a.m., the Sheriff’s Office received a call from Border Patrol notifying deputies of the enforcement action.
Sheriff’s Office role and response
According to Gandhi, the Sheriff’s Office does not assist federal immigration enforcement officers and did not take part in Thursday’s actions. Deputies responded only after receiving emergency calls from witnesses.
“At no time did the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office assist with any immigration enforcement,” Gandhi said in a statement. “California law enforcement agencies are legally prohibited from doing so per state law (SB 54), and the Sheriff’s Office does not serve as an immigration enforcement agency. Our deputies remain committed to protecting all residents of Sacramento County, and we strongly encourage anyone to report crimes or suspicious activity, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status.”
Will there be more raids?
Most likely, several law enforcement sources told The Sacramento Bee on Thursday. In his statement, Kim of Customs and Border Patrol said: “Enforcement anywhere in the state is ongoing and should be expected.”
Iraqi artist slain at store in hate killing
The Florin Road Home Depot was also the site of a racially motivated murder in March 2014. Iraqi artist Hassan Alawsi was shot dead in the store’s parking lot March 16, 2014, by Jeffrey Michael Caylor as Alawsi and his sister walked back to their car after shopping for paint supplies.
Caylor did not know Alawsi but told relatives of his dislike of people of Middle Eastern descent, authorities said. Alawsi, 46, studied art at the University of Baghdad. He fled the country with his family in 2001. They resettled in Sacramento in 2007.
In July 2016, Alawsi’s art works were displayed at the California State Capitol on what would have been his 47th birthday.
At his 2016 murder trial, Sacramento Superior Court jurors watched security video footage of Caylor as he circled the store’s parking lot in his car before pulling beside Alawsi and firing the fatal rounds.
Caylor, a former gang member who served time for attempted murder before killing Alawsi, was sentenced in 2017 to life in prison.
Caylor, now 55, is serving a life sentence without parole at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation inmate records.
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