A DHS vehicle spotted on Mission Street caused panic on social media. Only, it wasn’t ICE.

One afternoon in late March, Your Allied Rapid Response Network (YARR), a network of volunteers who monitor community reports about suspected immigration enforcement activity in Santa Cruz County, sent out an urgent message across its social media channels.

A Department of Homeland Security vehicle had been spotted on Mission Street in Santa Cruz, the group warned, urging community members to be on “high alert” and stay away from the neighborhood. 

“Please avoid the area at Mission St. Extension and Western Drive near the Westside Market as a precaution,” YARR wrote on Facebook.

The organization’s community hotline, established for reporting potential federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity, had received multiple calls about a marked DHS pickup truck stationed outside a federal building on the city’s Westside.

Within 10 minutes of those initial calls, a volunteer – known as a verifier – arrived on scene and confirmed that there was, in fact, a DHS vehicle parked outside the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center on Mission Street. The verifier stayed about 15 minutes before leaving, said Paulina Moreno, a YARR volunteer who was not among those who went to the center to check on the vehicle. 

“They were able to spot it, and it wasn’t moved. It was parked,” she said. A second verifier arrived a few hours later and confirmed the DHS vehicle was still there.

Inside the building, the center’s director, Louis Licate, was oblivious to the growing alarm spreading through social media. The presence of the Department of Homeland Security at the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center is routine, he said.

The vehicle, it turned out, belonged to the Federal Protective Service (FPS), a division of DHS responsible for safeguarding federal government facilities like the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, along with their employees and visitors. Every year, as part of its work, FPS employees conduct a safety inspection at the center to ensure doors lock properly and that other security measures are working as intended, Licate said. 

While both FPS and ICE operate under the Department of Homeland Security umbrella, they are distinct entities with separate missions. FPS conducts security inspections and patrols at federal facilities nationwide, though their presence varies by location. 

The Federal Protective Service does sometimes work with other federal law enforcement agencies, but the Department of Homeland Security did not clarify whether FPS works with ICE. Security inspections and patrols conducted by FPS happen almost every day throughout the country, a DHS spokesperson told Lookout via email. 

All vehicles used by DHS agencies look relatively alike, which can cause confusion. Both ICE and FPS cars are blue and white, sporting the Department of Homeland Security logo. The only detail that differentiates an FPS vehicle from the rest are the words “Federal Protective Service” written in bold blue letters on its two front doors. 

Less than an hour after posting its alert, YARR issued an update across its social media platforms declaring the situation a false alarm. “YARR has been informed that the presence of these vehicles is common at that location attending together,” the organization wrote on Facebook. “We are currently suspending the high alert state. Thank you to the people who made the report and to those who helped us spread this message. The safety of our community is our priority.” The organization noted that another reported ICE sighting near the Capitola Mall that day had also proven to be unfounded.

According to Moreno, YARR is not aware of anyone who was arrested or detained that day. Volunteers are consulting with county officials to better understand the vehicle’s presence at the marine center. “We know that these vehicles are mostly used for detention purposes, and so we didn’t know exactly if they were here for a particular person,” she said.

The false alarm over the DHS vehicle reflects a heightened state of vigilance that has persisted in the county since the Trump administration announced aggressive immigration enforcement policies, making even routine sightings of federal vehicles a source of community anxiety. 

Across California, communities have had to contend with the fallout from mistaken ICE sightings and false reports, from a middle school student who claimed to have been confronted by immigration agents on a public bus in San Francisco, to social media hoaxes in the Los Angeles area. 

A day after the vehicle was spotted on Santa Cruz’s Westside, residents of Salinas were sent into panic after a DHS vehicle was spotted parked outside a Social Security office for three hours. The words Federal Protective Service were on the vehicle. The Solidarity Network of Monterey County posted a statement to social media that its volunteers confirmed there wasn’t any ICE activity in the area, and there have not been reports of people being arrested or detained. 

Immigration advocates advise community members to be careful when they come across posts about unverified ICE sightings. “The instinct to be helpful is very admirable, but sometimes sharing unverified information can end up doing more harm than good,” said Santa Cruz-based immigration lawyer Matthew Weisner. 

The harm that comes out of unverified posts is very real, he said. “People decide not to go to work or take their kids to school or leave their house when they’re afraid, and that does real harm to our community,” Weisner said. 

It’s better to use the tools available in the community, which will verify the information, he said. Oftentimes, when it’s a false alarm, it’s because whoever first shared the post mischaracterized the car, thinking it was ICE, but turns out to be a different law enforcement agency, Weisner said. 

“There are lots of reasons for federal law enforcement or other law enforcement agents who might be in our community doing their job, it’s unrelated to immigration enforcement,” Weisner said. 

At YARR, Moreno said volunteers follow a protocol when someone calls the group’s hotline to report an ICE sighting. Dispatchers — who are also volunteers — send out a text to the group of trained verifiers with information shared in the call. The closest available verifier then travels to the location to investigate the report.

Once on the scene, verifiers walk around the area, asking questions to people who are walking around, said Moreno. “It’s not like they just show up and it’s just like, ‘Oh, I don’t see anything,’” she said. 

Despite being a volunteer-based organization, Moreno said the network has built capacity all around the county, which is reflected in how fast people are showing up to verify reported ICE sightings.

The organization, which also provides referral lists for lawyers in the area and other immigration resources to community members, is working to build its volunteer-run social media team to share information about verified reports. The network shared at least three updates on its Facebook account and two Instagram posts about the DHS vehicle in front of the marine science center. “People have full time jobs, and so they’re really doing their best to be able to then share it on social media,” she said. 

While it’s important to inform the community about the potential presence of DHS in the area, Moreno said that YARR is also working on improving the language used in its posts to ensure their alerts are informative without causing undue alarm. 

“We don’t want to create additional panic, but we do want to alert people about presence just to be extra careful about the areas that they are visiting,” she said. The main goal is to remind people about their rights as immigrants and that the hotline is always there when they need help, Moreno said. 

Apart from initial posts on March 26, YARR has not provided any further updates on its social media pages, said Moreno. She added the network is continuing to keep an eye for sightings and situations like this one in Santa Cruz, and also in surrounding counties.