The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have reportedly detained 78 migrants in California’s Central Valley, alleging that every suspect is an illegal alien with drug and gang offenses on their records.
X accounts show that local residents protested the arrests, while Democrat politicians questioned the agents’ actions.
“Jurisdiction for custom and border protections is delineated in federal law within 100 miles of the border clearly current county and anything north of Kern County is far from 100 miles of the border,” Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA) said, according to a report by ABC 30 Action News.
While all illegal migrants have technically broken U.S. law, Costa added that the CBP commissioner informed him that the goal was to detain illegal alien criminals of drug and human trafficking, adding that all 78 of those detained had such criminal records.
“I asked whether or not that was the extent of it,” Costa said, adding that the CBP commissioner “told me that they had concluded their effort as a result of their arrest as of a day or two ago and that they would reassess where they would go from there.”
California State Sen. Anna Caballero (D-District 14), meanwhile, said, “What we know is farmworkers have been taken into custody, loaded onto Vans at gas stations stores and also at random traffic stops.”
“And we verified because people have it called our office and we’ve been able to verify a lot of this information,” Caballero added.
California leaders also noted that local law enforcement were not used to help with these raids, a move that Caballero referred to as “shocking.”
“So this whole issue with immigration, quite frankly, was shocking and was not expected this early,” Caballero said.
Meanwhile, outside of a community meeting for wildfire victims in Altadena, California, left-wing activists are bizarrely passing out flyers urging people to “mobilize and fight” to prevent President-elect Donald Trump from using the Los Angeles wildfires to “carry out mass deportations.”
Trump, however, is not currently in office but will be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States in seven days.
As Breitbart News reported, wildfires sparked last Tuesday and spread quickly due to high winds, forcing residents to evacuate and causing historic destruction to homes.
At the time of this writing, there are three active wildfires ablaze at once, located in the Pacific Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst areas, according to CalFire, which lists the Palisades Fire — that has ravaged a staggering 23,713 acres — as only 14 percent contained.
Thirteen fatalities have also been confirmed at the time of this writing.
On Thursday, it was reported that police have been investigating the Kenneth Fire in Woodland Hills as possible arson and have detained a suspect.
During a Friday press conference, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department said the arson suspect taken into custody was released due to lack of evidence. He was charged with a felony probation violation, and the investigation into the arson is ongoing.
On Sunday, an illegal immigrant was reportedly arrested by police after California residents feared he would use a blowtorch to start wildfires in Los Angeles.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
