No jail time for US citizen arrested in Sacramento immigration raid at Home Depot
The U.S. citizen arrested by federal agents during a high-profile immigration operation at a south Sacramento Home Depot last summer has reached a plea agreement over criminal charges brought by federal prosecutors.
The plea agreement, finalized Monday in Sacramento federal court, comes nearly nine months after the July arrest of Jose Manuel Castillo was captured on video by his wife. He was detained at the Florin Road Home Depot during an operation in which masked U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers swarmed the parking lot and arrested 11 undocumented immigrants.
Federal officials alleged that Castillo interfered with the operation and punctured the tires on one of their vehicles. Authorities later found a small knife in his pocket after he was transported to a detention facility in Stockton according to the criminal complaint.
Under the agreement, Castillo will not face jail time. He pleaded guilty to the “willful injury and depredation” of U.S. property and was placed on probation for one year. Castillo is also required to pay at least $478 in restitution to cover the replacement cost of the tire.
“These are very difficult times for people that care about justice,” said Castillo’s attorney, Mark Reichel, on Monday night in response to the agreement. “ICE is very brutal and this is a very minor offense compared to how brutal ICE is.”
The immigration operation drew national attention after it was captured on video by a Fox News camera crew. The operation was led by former U.S. Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino, who was the face of the Donald Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign until his abrupt removal in January.
A federal court ruled this month that the Sacramento operation violated a prior court order deeming such stops and arrests illegal. U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston wrote in Fresno federal court that officers “again detained people without reasonable suspicion.”
Thurston enforced a preliminary injunction, reinforcing constitutional limits on Border Patrol operations in California’s Eastern District, which spans from the Oregon border to Bakersfield and includes Sacramento.
