When calls started coming in that ICE was present in the Inland Empire on Saturday morning, organizers with the Inland Empire Coalition for Immigrant Justice and other groups had no idea that weekend would end with more than 20 people detained.

According to Tamara Márquez, a representative of the coalition group IC4IJ, calls to the county's rapid response line began at 5 a.m. and did not end until noon.

“Although it is true that arrests have decreased, they never stopped, but this weekend reminded us of the summer of last year, where we were arriving at the scene of the raid and the agents had already left and were somewhere else,” Marquez described. “They were literally going back and forth arresting people everywhere, it was the same feeling we felt last year where everything happened very quickly.”

Arrests in Riverside, Ontario, Pomona and other cities

According to the documentation of the organization Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, from January 2025 to December of the same year they reported more than 1,000 incidents in the Inland Empire area, with 295 detainees, 8,000 calls and 28,000 text messages to the rapid response line.

Many of them say they are sure there are many more incidents that went unreported. And this weekend was a reminder to many that arrests are still happening and the possibility of an increase remains.

Marquez said the cities most affected this past weekend were Riverside, Jurupa Valley, Ontario, Pomona, Highland, Fontana and Montclair, where six arrests were reported. Three of those people arrested at 6:11 a.m. They were transferred to San Bernardino to be processed. His relatives quickly contacted IC4IJ.

"Some relatives have contacted us; we know of two people who signed their deportation order that same day," Marquez reported. "The two men's niece called us to tell us that they signed the documents without knowing what they were signing because they don't know English. They just signed, which is very common."

They started arresting people at 5 am and continued

The organization is one of many that were monitoring the streets and answering calls that kept coming. Márquez says they have noticed similar tactics used by agents; One of them is racial discrimination, in which they begin to stop groups of people who are going to work.

“I think today took us by surprise because, although it is nothing new that they start making arrests at 5 a.m., the last recorded raid was at 12 p.m. that same day,” he explained. “And for us it was a surprise because usually if they start early at 5 a.m., they finish around 10, but this time they kept arresting people.”

“Always stay alert, observe and support the organizations and groups that carry out this work and act as the eyes of the community and have the quick response telephone number on hand to report to ICE,” recalled Márquez, the representative of the IC4IJ coalition.

Family devastated by Oliver's arrest on the way to work

One of the things that organizers, like Márquez, want the community to keep in mind is that behind these arrests are people with families who are also directly affected. One family has already created a GoFundMe campaign to help get their family member out of detention. The family of Oliver, who was arrested on Saturday, June 27, 2026.

“Our family received devastating news: my husband, Oliver, was unjustly detained by ICE agents while on his way to work,” his wife, Claudia, said on the GoFundMe page. “Oliver is a loving husband, a brother who is always there for his family, a hard-working and respectful man, without any criminal record.”

His arrest was described by his wife as a nightmare that occurred just a few months after Claudia's father was also detained by ICE.

“Just when our family was beginning to heal, we once again faced fear, uncertainty and high legal expenses,” Claudia said on the donation page.

Another wave of ICE raids on Sunday

On Sunday, ICE raids occurred in Ontario, Jurupa Valley, Desert Hot Springs and Riverside. Organizers advise the community to remain alert and pay attention to what is happening around them. It also encourages people to become volunteers in organizations and groups that have been doing this work non-stop for a whole year.

“Our communities were targeted by ICE and families were separated,” Márquez said Saturday afternoon. “We cannot allow these attacks to become normal.”

Inland Empire Quick Response Number (909)361-4588

Become a Rapid Responder in the Inland Empire here or support IC4IJ's work here.