Police say ICE didn’t raid SLO County apartment complex — witness says it did. What happened?
.jpg "An arrest at a Paso Robles apartment complex on Jan. 29, 2025, initially believed to be an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid, was carried out by Homeland Security Investigations, a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Marshals Service, police said — but a witness to the arrest reported they saw ICE agents.")
Paso Robles police and a witness at the scene have offered opposing accounts of a raid at an apartment complex that led to a man’s arrest.
Police said the arrest on Wednesday, initially believed to be an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid, was carried out by a different federal agency.
Instead, it was a joint operation by Homeland Security Investigations, a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Marshals Service, Paso Robles Police Officer Tod Rehner told The Tribune on Friday.
A witness, however, disputes that account, telling The Tribune they saw ICE agents and that the person arrested was an undocumented immigrant.
The arrest comes amid rising fears of deportation in immigrant communities and a flurry of reports of unidentified federal agents thought to be ICE driving unmarked vehicles throughout San Luis Obispo County this week.
Contrary to the witness’s account, the Paso Robles Police Department said the arrest was not carried out by ICE and had nothing to do with immigration status.
“This was NOT an ICE operation for the purpose of immigration issues,” Rehner said in an email Friday. “It would be fair to say, however, that if the target subject was not in the country legally, they would face deportation.”
So what occurred? The Tribune looked into the police and witness’s differing accounts as part of its Reality Check series.
What did eyewitnesses see?
On Wednesday morning, a witness saw four police officers and two ICE agents in two different vehicles arrest someone at the Creston Garden Apartments, located at 1255 Creston Road, they said.
The witness spoke to The Tribune on the condition of anonymity to protect their identity.
Just before 11 a.m., the witness was informed by a resident of the apartments that a suspicious, unmarked vehicle was parked in the complex’s fire zone.
In the parking lot, the witness saw a black SUV with tinted windows and no license plates, they said. They approached the vehicle and knocked on the driver’s door.
When the driver roller down their window, the witness saw two agents wearing camouflage brown and green vests with “ICE” tags, they said. The witness only saw the front two seats and did not know if there were more people sitting in the backseat.
The witness informed the driver they were parked illegally and asked them to leave, then watched the SUV drive off, turn left out of the apartments and head south on Creston Road, they said.
Concerned by what they had seen, the witness called the Paso Robles police. According to the witness, the police said, “we know who they are and why they are there,” but nothing else.
The witness said they then stayed outside to monitor the situation, worried the agents would return. Then, around 11:30 a.m., they saw the arrest take place.
The man arrested was the son of a woman who lived at the Creston Garden Apartments, the witness said. He was not a resident at the complex but was there visiting his mother at the time, they said.
According to the witness, he was an undocumented immigrant.
He was outside in the parking lot taking out the trash when suddenly, another car — a gray Jeep with California license plates and tinted windows — drove into view and toward the man. The witness saw four officers wearing black vests that read “POLICE” exit the vehicle and contact the man, they said.
“They just pounced on him basically and threw him in the vehicle,” the witness told The Tribune.
According to the witness, the officers did not identify themselves to the man, read him his Miranda rights, say if they had an arrest warrant or answer any of the man’s pleas.
During the arrest, the first vehicle in which the witness had seen ICE agents returned to the scene, they said. No ICE agents got out of the SUV during the arrest, the witness said.
The two vehicles then sped off quickly, the SUV almost hitting the witness as it backed up on its way out of the parking lot, they said.
“Had I not moved, they would have hit me,” the witness said.
One resident of the Creston Garden Apartments told The Tribune on Friday they also heard screams from the parking lot on Wednesday morning. The resident asked to remain anonymous to protect their identity.
“I was just arriving (home) and I heard the screams of the person,” the resident said. “He was yelling that they were grabbing him and saying, ‘Why are they grabbing me if I’m not doing anything?’”
The resident said they saw Arizona license plates on one of the cars as it drove away.
Others also reported seeing ICE agents at the apartment complex, a representative of Spanish-speaking community group 805 La Voz told The Tribune on the condition of anonymity.
What did Paso Robles police say?
On Friday, police asserted the arrest was not conducted by ICE but was rather a joint effort by Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. marshals.
As to why there were conflicting accounts of ICE’s presence, Rehner said the uniforms for Homeland Security Investigations agents “could be confused for ICE.”
He did say there was a possibility there were ICE agents involved in the incident, however, though he continued to maintain it was not an ICE operation.
“Who knows, there could have been ICE people” in the car, he said.
Both ICE and Homeland Security Investigations are federal enforcement agencies under the larger umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security.
The Tribune reached out to ICE, Homeland Security Investigations and the Department of Homeland Security for comment but did not immediately receive a response from any agency.
However, Rehner said it doesn’t really matter if ICE was there or not.
“No matter who was there, the purpose of the arrest was not immigration,” he said.
Even if the person arrested was an undocumented immigrant, the primary reason for the arrest would have been related to a federal criminal offense, not his immigration status, he said. However, deportation could result as a side effect if the person was also undocumented.
“That fact is common and has been in effect for decades, as shown by the number of undocumented persons deported under the last several administrations (Biden included),” Rehner said in an email.
When asked if Paso Robles police officers would have told any concerned community members who called in that ICE was present on Wednesday, Rehner said they wouldn’t have.
“We may have told someone the feds were in town, but not ICE,” Rehner said.
According to Rehner, federal agents had left a message with a Paso Robles police officer early Wednesday morning informing the department of its planned operation, but the message was apparently not passed along to the other officers on duty that day.
Later that afternoon, The Tribune published a story that eyewitnesses had reported an ICE raid in Paso Robles, which is when police went back and discovered Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. marshals had called them that morning, Rehner said.
Person arrested was not resident of apartment complex, management says
The 60-unit Creston Garden Apartments is an affordable housing complex owned by local housing nonprofit People’s Self-Help Housing.
According to the nonprofit, the person arrested Wednesday was not a resident of the apartments.
“Any arrest made was not of a registered tenant of the Creston Garden Apartments,” chief human resources and administration officer Nicole Ramos told The Tribune. “It is our understanding that an individual was met in the property’s parking lot and detained.”
According to Ramos, the property management team had no prior knowledge of any planned activities by any federal or local law enforcement agency at the apartment complex.
Ramos did not confirm nor deny if ICE specifically, or any federal agency, was present at the apartment complex Wednesday, only that there was “law enforcement presence at the property”.
“As it relates to engagement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement at our properties and worksites, the safety and security of our residents and staff is our first priority,” Ramos said. “The (People’s Self-Help Housing) site-based staff are trained to cooperate with law enforcement as legally required and to take the necessary steps to ensure that all involved in the interaction are compliant with applicable immigrant protections and regulations.”
Is ICE in SLO County? Rumors spread of sightings
The incident comes as fears of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans take hold among immigrant communities.
“There is a lot of trepidation in regard to ICE coming into communities and taking enforcement action against undocumented persons,” Rehner said. “Again, this was not ICE, and the investigation had nothing to do with immigration status.”
Multiple additional rumors of federal agents driving unmarked vehicles with tinted windows and no license plates spread across SLO County on Thursday, namely in Cambria, Atascadero, Santa Margarita and at San Luis Obispo High School. San Luis Coastal Unified School District told The Tribune ICE agents were not present at the school at all this week.
Though they were reported as ICE sightings, it is unclear if agents reportedly spotted around the county on Thursday were ICE, Homeland Security, U.S. marshals, another federal agency or something else entirely.
On Thursday, Rehner could not confirm if the federal agents from Wednesday’s operation were still present in SLO County, or if the operation was isolated to Paso Robles.
This story was originally published January 31, 2025 at 4:32 PM.
