Berkeleyside34%
ICE seizes person in Berkeley in operation in which little is known 47%
By Alex N. Gecan28% Vanessa Arredondo36%
7/16/2026, 11:40:00 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 27 faulty reasoning types, including Post Hoc (False Cause), Availability Heuristic, and Ambiguity (Equivocation), with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 32.6% saturation with 272 hits. Analysis detected 1,904 faulty-reasoning hits from 834 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 48.9% and a BS Rank of 47% (10,972 of 20,515 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 53.50% of the article peer group.
Federal agents detained a 30-year-old visa holder near Telegraph Avenue and Woolsey Street on July 9 and, by all appearances, did so without telling anyone in city leadership or law enforcement.
Agents from the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), a law enforcement arm of the State Department, and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations division, under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), conducted a “civil immigration enforcement operation,” a State Department spokesperson said on Monday.
The State Department did not respond to questions about people detained or arrested, or the nature of the enforcement action referring questions to ICE, which led the operation.
The arrest was the first confirmed ICE action in Berkeley to result in a detention since the start of Trump’s second term, marking a rare enforcement action in the sanctuary city.
In an unsigned email Thursday, an ICE spokesperson identified the person detained as a 30-year-old from Morocco who “entered the United States in 2025 on a visa but later violated the terms of that visa.”
ICE did not specify what type of visa the person held or how they allegedly violated its terms.
A search of Alameda County and federal court records showed no criminal charges against the person.
The person was in custody at ICE’s Golden State Annex facility in McFarland in Kern County as of Thursday, according to the agency’s detainee locator.
Neither parent agency told city police anything about what they were planning to do Thursday, Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Byron White said in an email.
Nor did the police department have anything to do with the operation.
It is also not entirely clear why DSS agents were detailed to an ICE operation.
The agency primarily protects diplomats and consulates, but also investigates visa and passport fraud, terrorism and other transnational crimes.
When a law enforcement agency, even a federal one, operates in a local agency’s jurisdiction, it is common, though not always required, to give the home team a heads-up.
When DHS agents came to Berkeley in September to speak with someone about a resident application, for example, they gave the Berkeley Police Department a courtesy call, albeit a cursory one.
Berkeley police do not assist in immigration enforcement, part of the city’s longstanding sanctuary policy.
But as ICE has prosecuted President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to dramatically increase deportations, the public agency and its parent department have, in general, not responded to media inquiries from Berkeleyside and its sister newsrooms.
The operation fell in between two fatal shootings by ICE agents, one in Texas and the other in Maine.
The number of people entering into ICE detention facilities climbed in June to roughly 39,000 after hovering around 30,000 per month since February, according to information obtained by The Associated Press.
Advocacy organizations in Berkeley were also taken by surprise
East Bay immigrant advocacy organizations told Berkeleyside they did not receive any tips that the operation had taken place.
A representative of the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant called it “very disturbing.”
The Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership posted on Instagram that it was “aware” of reports of ICE arresting someone at Woolsey and Telegraph, and asked anyone with information to contact them at 510-241-4011 or info@acilep.org.
Local advocates and immigrant rights groups in Berkeley have responded to increased rumors of ICE sightings near schools, city parks, and residential neighborhoods since the start of Donald Trump’s second presidential term.
In March 2025, Berkeley Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra received some criticism for reporting that ICE was at UC Berkeley for “a presentation of some kind.”
The rapid response group was able to confirm officials had been in the area, but not for enforcement purposes.
A month later, ICE agents visited a Berkeley home, where an immigrant family who applied for refugee status had previously lived, to conduct a “child welfare check.”
Several unverified reports of immigration enforcement agents at San Pablo Park and other parts of Berkeley were made last summer, but city officials and the Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership (ACILEP), which serves as the region’s rapid response hotline, were not able to confirm ICE presence.
Last June, when protests erupted in Los Angeles in response to increased ICE and National Guard presence, rumors spread that a construction site in Downtown Berkeley had been raided and workers had been taken away.
No ICE activity was confirmed.
The arrival of federal Customs and Border Patrol agents early in the morning on Oct. 23 to Coast Guard Island in Alameda sparked protests and sent community advocates scrambling.
But just as quickly as the situation had escalated, it quieted down: By the next day, local officials confirmed that the federal operation in the Bay Area had been called off.
Since then, Berkeley teachers, students and community members have rallied in opposition to federal immigration raids across the country.
The operation was previously reported by The Berkeley Scanner.
Featured photo credit: AP Photo/Erin Hooley
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