Grassroots organization Your Allied Rapid Response (YARR) began to receive calls to its hotline around 7:40 a.m. Wednesday about a potential immigration raid happening just outside of Watsonville. Three minutes later, YARR sent a text message to its network of volunteers across Santa Cruz County, reading: “ICE raid in progress. Responders needed immediately.”
By 8:30 a.m., a crowd of at least 15 community members, many of whom were YARR volunteers, had gathered around the entrance of a cannabis warehouse located in Royal Oak, just outside of Watsonville, with the belief that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were conducting arrests. Other community members stood across the street observing from afar.
In fact, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department deputies were carrying out a search warrant related to illegal cannabis activity at the warehouse located at the intersection of San Juan and San Miguel Canyon roads. There were no arrests made on Wednesday, but law enforcement agencies seized illegal cannabis plants from the site. All 21 of the employees at the site were released, said Kevin McInerney, commander for the Law Enforcement Division of the California Department of Cannabis Control…