SAN DIEGO — The increasing presence of federal immigration officers in Carlsbad prompted a crowd of concerned citizens to express their fears and frustrations at Tuesday’s Carlsbad City Council meeting.

More than 30 people spoke during an update from local officials on federal activities in the city. Councilmember Teresa Acosta requested the review in December, and the council approved it unanimously.

“There has always been a great deal of misunderstanding among Carlsbad residents when it comes to what role, if any, the city of Carlsbad Police Department can play in immigration-related activities,” City Manager Geoff Patnoe said Tuesday.

In the most recent incident, federal agents stopped a vehicle, smashed a window, pulled out a man and arrested him Tuesday during morning rush-hour traffic on Faraday Avenue, according to police and a bystander.

State law prohibits local law enforcement officers from participating in U.S. Department of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement activities, police Chief Christie Calderwood told the City Council. If local officers attempt to intervene they could be arrested, she said.

“One of our officers happened to be driving by — this is down the street from our station — and was under the impression that a traffic collision had just occurred,” Calderwood said. “There were multiple vehicles backed up on westbound Faraday.

“Our officer pulled over, and once he realized federal officers were in the middle of an arrest, he kept his distance and began conducting traffic control because there were multiple near-traffic-collisions occurring during a busy morning commute,” she said.

Carlsbad police had no other involvement in the case, Calderwood said.

One of the speakers at the meeting said she arrived on Faraday soon after the arrest.

“I was the first person to get there after the action had taken place,” said Jennifer Lynskey, a former Marine Corps officer who recently moved to Carlsbad.

“I was the one to deal with the wife of the individual who was taken, after they had smashed his window, dragged him from his truck, tore his seatbelt, all without a warrant and despite him having documentation of an active immigration case,” Lynskey said.

“Not only is this a violation of his constitutional rights and an unnecessary use of force and intimidation, the incident created a public safety hazard on the road during early morning traffic,” she said.

“When this happens, the city becomes complicit,” Lynskey said. “Silence is not neutrality. It is endorsement.”

Local law enforcement officers must do more to prevent the abuse of residents, she said.

“The Constitution applies to everyone in this country, not just citizens, not just people who look or think like us, or who we think it should apply to,” Lynskey said.

“Our local government and law enforcement have a duty to protect residents from unlawful and abusive enforcement tactics,” she said. “Yet today and everyday we continue to see federal immigration agents engage in tactics that are unconstitutional, unlawful, and just unnecessarily cruel.”

Socorro Anderson, a Carlsbad resident for more than 45 years and the city’s 2024 Citizen of the Year, is the coordinator of St. Patrick Catholic Church’s Father Raymond Moore Hall. It provides food, clothing and other services for the needy and homeless in the city’s downtown Barrio neighborhood.

“I work with families in the Hispanic area of Carlsbad,” Anderson said. “We have five families who have lost their father, been deported. I don’t know why, and I don’t ask why, but I have three high school students without a father. I have two elementary students without a mother.

“I do a food pantry, and 30% of our Hispanic residents are not coming in because they are staying home, afraid to go out,” she said.

“What’s happening in our country is sad,” Anderson said. “I’m concerned about the families of Carlsbad.”

“The problem is not the Carlsbad Police Department,” said Sam Ward, another longtime resident.

“It is the thousands of lawless, poorly trained and poorly vetted federal officers who are invading our communities,” Ward said.

Most of the speakers agreed with Lynskey and others like her. A handful of people, mostly from outside Carlsbad, spoke in support of the federal immigrant enforcement. Among them was Richard Newton, an Oceanside resident who often favors conservative issues at Oceanside City Council meetings.

“I agree that the optics look bad, but that does not negate the need to enforce immigration law,” Newton said.

Tuesday’s arrest was one of several incidents involving ICE agents reported recently in Carlsbad, Calderwood said. On Dec. 1, a resident recorded video of armed ICE officers wearing protective vests assembled near their vehicles in the parking lot of the city’s Dove library.

Carlsbad police were not present at the library incident. Afterward, Calderwood said, she watched the video and it appeared as if the officers had made an arrest nearby and assembled in the library parking lot for a debriefing or to fill out paperwork.

California’s Senate Bill 54, also known as the California Values Act, limits local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal agencies in a number of ways. The city cannot participate in federal civil immigration enforcement, cannot ask about immigration status, cannot share nonpublic personal information with federal authorities, or arrest people based on civil warrants.

Other state laws also set boundaries to protect the public from unwarranted violations of privacy and civil rights. Federal agents are not required to notify local authorities when operating in their jurisdiction.

“Our communication with federal immigration officers has been extremely limited because of SB 54,” Calderwood said.

“There have been incidents of our department hearing after the fact from community members that ICE was observed in our city,” Calderwood said.

“We are not privy to immigration tactical enforcement plans,” she said. “There are times when ICE or Border Patrol will call our dispatch and advise us that they are in our city … and other times where ICE has been observed in our city and our dispatch center has not been called in advance.

When federal authorities do call, she said, they do not provide specific information about suspects, locations or times. They usually only reveal that they will be working within a time frame such as noon to 3 p.m. that day.

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