Exposing ICE cover-ups, lies and spying centers

Spying centers exposed. SB 1095 (Perez), “Expose Data Deportation Centers,” just passed out of the California Senate Privacy Committee moments ago. Proudly co-sponsored by the ICE Out of California coalition, this bill will bring transparency and accountability to these secretive facilities. Read more in our new thread. 

Nicole Ozer, who leads the Center for Constitutional Democracy at UC Law San Francisco and is the incoming ED of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, explained in the Sacramento Bee late last year:

You may have never heard of a Fusion Center, but a Fusion Center has likely heard about you…in the past two decades - with little formal oversight - their surveillance and targeting activities have expanded exponentially and increasingly turned inward. Fusion Center surveillance infrastructure is designed to hoover up massive amounts of information about who we are, where we go, what we do, and who we know from many parts of our lives and funnel it to different levels of government. 

​In recent years, California fusion centers have been used to run searches for ICE and circumvent facial recognition bans, and a CalMatters investigation last month found that local law enforcement agencies have shared license plate data with ICE and Border Patrol, in violation of California law. 

While ICE sensationalizes and lies, communities bring the truth forward. In Stanislaus County, community members are reeling and outraged after ICE shot local father Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez as he was driving to his job repairing homes and buildings after fires. 

Carlos’s fiancee and attorney held a press conference, refuting one ICE lie after another. While there will likely be more information available in the coming weeks, ICE’s strategy to fabricate and sensationalize the facts persists in cases across California and the country – and the consequences are harrowing. 

• Rodney Taylor “must crawl through [the] muck and squalor of feces and bodily fluids to enter and exit the shower” in ICE detention, where he has been held since January 2025. Rodney is a father of two and a double amputee. He was pardoned for a burglary conviction when he was a teenager. 
• Sithy Yi, a grandmother of 8 who survived genocide in Cambodia, endured appaling conditions in ICE’s Adelanto detention center and still faces threats of deportation. An abusive relationship led to her arrest and sentence over a decade ago. 
• Oklahoma farmer and father Van Vu was captured by ICE at a routine check-in this year, decades after his sentence as a result of a suspended driver’s license. Vu’s wife shared about their kids: “I think they’re traumatized right now. Like, ‘where is our dad? Where is our dad?’” 

ICYMI: The ICE Out of CA coalition is calling on California’s Attorney General to launch an investigation into the shooting and the Turlock Police Department’s possible collusion with ICE. In a statement, the coalition says, “we are profoundly alarmed by reports that the Turlock Police Department may have colluded with ICE following a traffic stop of Mr. Mendoza Hernandez last week. If this is true, the Turlock Police Department bears responsibility for ICE’s violence as well.” 

New analysis: ICE costs cities millions, as people face cuts to life essentials. Amid reports that HR 1 could strip millions of Californians of their healthcare and food assistance, NPR has a new analysis of ICE raids, which “left city budgets struggling to absorb the fallout.” The findings underscore why residents from San Francisco to Santa Barbara are calling on elected officials to ensure local resources go to local needs, not mass deportation and family separation. 
Last week, Angelenos rallied outside the Los Angeles Police Commission, urging the commissioners to ensure LAPD fully complies with the city’s sanctuary policies and maximizes protections for local families. Father Brendan Busse said at the rally, “That’s what we’re here to ask LAPD to do: to serve and to protect. Safety and sanctuary go together.”

Meanwhile, Alameda County’s board of supervisors unanimously passed a resolution opposing the Trump administration’s rumored plans to reopen FCI Dublin, including for federal immigration enforcement purposes. The prison is notorious for widespread sexual abuse by prison guards, and dozens of survivors are now being targeted by ICE. A new Open Secrets investigation details the growing constellation of private corporations making money off new and expanded detention centers. 

For more updates on how Californians are standing up for due process and safety, follow ICE Out of California on Bluesky.