Information spread quickly across social media platforms that ICE was conducting raids in search of undocumented residents across Kern County on Tuesday, January 7. Photos, videos, and posts circulated across Instagram, X, and Facebook showing federal agents in the greater Bakersfield area.

The Bakersfield Police Department was alerted by the Department of Homeland Security that U.S. Customs and Border Protection would be in Bakersfield overseeing operations within Kern County.

The United Liberation Front for Palestine (ULFP), unitedfrontforliberation on Instagram, was one of the main sources of information for the community—rapidly sharing live updates through videos and photos of where current ICE agents were conducting searches.

From the posts that were shared, ICE agents were detaining residents in various ways, such as pulling people aside on the road, at gas stations, grocery stores, and bus stops.

One of the major raids that took place was at the Home Depot on Ming Avenue, starting early in the afternoon around 12 p.m., allegedly detaining around 30–40 undocumented residents.

“When I arrived, there were several ICE officers. They took many people into their cars (patrol cars). A short while after they began to transport the people into the vehicles, a person came to us saying, ‘They didn’t take me because I had papers,’ so they let him go. But all the others they took never came back, only him,” said Lazaro Ramirez, a Bakersfield resident who witnessed the ICE raid at Home Depot.

ULFP created an ICE/CBP social media spotter alert and tip line to keep the public informed of where ICE agents were currently being spotted, as well as sharing information on what to do and the rights that undocumented residents have. For residents who are seeking information on their constitutional rights, a collaborative group is hosting a Know Your Rights Forum tonight in Bakersfield at 6:00 p.m. at the Friendship House Community Center on 2424 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Bakersfield, CA, 93307.