Masked men, sobbing immigrants: The terrible reality of ICE in Sacramento | Opinion
The sterile, white-walled, white-tiled waiting room on the fifth floor of Sacramento’s John E. Moss Federal Building on Capitol Mall was tense with fear, anticipation and rising adrenaline on Friday morning.
Inside the unseen courtroom, the droning sound of Immigration Court flipped between Russian and English. Then, Immigration Judge Denise Hunter delivered her verdict: The case would not be dismissed. The young Russian man on trial needed to return in September for a follow-up hearing.
The young man, with a messy mop of strawberry blonde hair, exited the courtroom. Immediately, he was ushered into a private room to speak with an attorney. Before the door closed, he began to sob.
Outside, in the hall — where visitors were warned not to loiter — more than a dozen masked men in plainclothes waited for the Russian man. They packed so closely on either side of the hallway that it forced everyone leaving the courtroom into a single-file line to pass by; a clear intimidation tactic perpetrated by cowards who refused to identify themselves.
The minutes inside the lobby stretched interminably. When the young man finally exited the private room, he joined arms with two women who folded in on either side, holding his hands. The women were advocates with NorCal Resist, hoping to walk him out of the building safely. He should have been free to leave.
They didn’t get very far.
In an instant, more than a dozen plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers swooped in, pulling up their masks to hide their faces and forcefully snatching the man out of the grasp of the women. They shoved the advocates to the ground and into the walls.
Frankie Irvine, one of the women, repeatedly demanded to see the judicial warrant that gave these ICE officers the right to detain the man, who had now disappeared down the hallway in custody. The other advocate shouted, increasingly loudly and frustratedly when it was all to no avail: “What you’re doing is illegal! What you’re doing is ILLEGAL!”
They refused to answer her. They refused to give their names or badge numbers. They refused to confirm that the man was even now in their custody. They were acting as a secret police, with no accountability.
I was struck by the horrible thought that nothing was stopping these masked men from snatching and grabbing any one of us who had borne witness to their illegal kidnapping of the young Russian man.
You needn’t look far for the intimidation tactics, illicit disappearances and plain fear now being perpetrated across the country by ICE. It’s not a cold, distant threat — it’s here in Sacramento, right now. And it’s terrifying.
Two lines on a cold morning
Before all of that, however, it was a beautiful day in Sacramento. On this particular Friday morning, before the city’s crisp delta breeze hardened into the solstice’s summer heat, two lines formed in front of the Moss Building.
On the left, a long line of men and women waited in suits and ties, dresses and skirts, nervously clutching paperwork and smoothing their hair. Their children grasped tiny American flags with one fist and their parents’ hands in the other. Those people were there to take the oath of citizenship.
On the right, a much shorter line formed. They, too, were nervously clutching paperwork, but this group stayed quiet, stood in small clumps and talked in low voices. Some were keenly watching their surroundings. Others kept their heads down. That was the line of immigrants waiting for their normal check-in at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.
Some were there to attend an Executive Office for Immigration Review hearing, an office that conducts the immigration courts and adjudicates any appeals. Immigration Courts handle cases involving non-citizens who are facing deportation and also those seeking relief from deportation, such as asylum.
The two lines crawled through the metal detectors. In between the two, the morning’s first shift of volunteers with NorCal Resist helpfully directed people into the correct line while passing out information on what to do if detained by ICE in both English and Spanish.
NorCal Resist is a non-profit, volunteer-led organization, operating in Sacramento since 2018. The group provides training on how to navigate police and ICE encounters and legal assistance to asylum-seekers who cannot afford representation or bail money, among other community-building activities. But lately, everything has been turned upside down.
“Every day it’s new rules,” said Autumn Gonzalez, a volunteer and advocate with NorCal Resist. “They’re making it very difficult for us to talk to the people at all. ICE agents were physically blocking and pulling to make sure we couldn’t get people’s contact information. If we don’t have the information, the attorneys can’t contact them and they get lost in the system really fast.”
Sacramento Assemblywoman gets involved
Just a week before, federal authorities inside the Moss Building detained at least four individuals and had restricted public access to the building to journalists and advocates — a foreboding step toward authoritarianism and secret hearings.
Court Administrator Nichole Rodriguez said that the decision to restrict access last Friday was not made by her, but by the Federal Protective Service, a law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Sacramento Assemblywoman Maggy Krell quickly filed a Freedom of Information Act request the next day. She requested access to all directives from the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, the Executive Office for Immigration Review or any other agency that issued the orders to deny access to the Sacramento Immigration Court.
“Immigration court is generally open to the public,” Krell said in a text. “The fact that members of the press and lawyers were shut out raises serious concern — especially in the context of the administration’s attacks on immigrant communities.
“Families are being ripped apart and people are afraid to go to work. Everyone has a right to a fair process, and we need an open courthouse to assure that.”
What are we willing to do?
I was struck by how brave these ordinary people were, volunteering with NorCal Resist to put their bodies and freedom on the line between ICE agents and the immigrants.
Lina Lineros, a volunteer with the advocacy organization, told me there’s not much they can do if ICE decides to take someone. They can observe and take notes, and try to assist by giving information to the immigrants.
“A month ago, it was so calm here,” Lineros said. “I used to tell people that this was the least risky hearing to come into. (Now), it’s terrifying to come here.”
Irvine, the woman who had accompanied the young Russian man from the courtroom, later showed me the welts on her arms that she’d sustained in the scuffle. They slowly but surely were turning into bruises within a few minutes of the incident.
“I can’t in good conscience sit by while they kidnap people,” Irvine said. “We need to use our privilege for good.”
I find myself struggling to describe just how terrible the situation truly was. Nothing could have prepared me for the scene that unfolded, other than to witness it. My hands were shaking afterward, though whether that was from adrenaline or anger, I don’t know.
I felt the intimidation tactics of the men in the hall and their refusal to answer basic questions, and I witnessed one of them take a smiling selfie with the immigration courtroom’s sign. I saw the speed with which these men pulled up their gaiter masks to hide their faces before physically assaulting and tearing away the advocates.
This is no longer the America I know and love. This is a police state where federal officers are operating in secret, taking anyone they want, from any place they want. They do not answer to the people, nor the press, nor even to legislators. These men are violent individuals acting under unclear orders, from unseen commanders, without constraint or accountability.
These are dark days in American history. This is happening now right here in Sacramento. The only question left is: What are we willing to do to stop it?
This story was originally published June 21, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
