BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — It’s been a rapid increase in just a few weeks.
“It’s scary. It’s really scary right now. What’s going on,” Alexis Reyna, a Wasco resident who witnessed an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest, said.
“It was loud. It was really loud. This car that’s over here, they broke the window, first of all, to get them out. And then they left all the glass in the road.”
Quick arrests, in and out, have created fear for many in their own homes.
“To see it happen in real life is just scary,” Reyna said.
Kern Rapid Response is a volunteer network that receives calls from community members on ICE activity.
“They really have skyrocketed since the beginning of October, at least double or triple,” said Rosa Lopez, a senior policy advocate and organizer with the American Civil Liberties Union.
Empty restaurants in Arvin are getting calls too, residents checking in on where ICE officers might be.
Kern Rapid Response said 10 to 20 individuals have been detained by ICE in Kern County already.
“I live here in Wasco, California, and I feel like it’s a shame that they’re targeting us for our skin, for our nationality, for being Hispanics, for being immigrants. I go, I think that’s really, really, really sad,” Karla Hernandez, another Wasco resident, said.
The more time passes, the more outrage grows.
A demonstration of that in front of the Padre Hotel, amid rumors that ICE agents were staying at the hotel.
“I want ICE to get out of Bakersfield, out of America, because they’re clearly deporting people that are hardworking and they’re not deporting the criminals,” said Melody Molina, a protestor.
More videos, pictures, detainments are being seen across the county — all ahead of a critical election.
“They’re doing it intentionally. They’re just trying to scare us. Vote, vote and let it get all these people out of where they’re at right now,” Hernandez said.