Despite sanctuary state laws; part of Operation Take Back America

Almost all charged with illegally re-entering U.S. following removal

By Allen D. Payton

In an Aug. 12, 2026 post on X by First Assistant United States Attorney for the Central District of California Bilal A. “Bill” Essayli, he wrote, “Last year I launched Operation Guardian Angel to force sanctuary jurisdictions to hand over criminal illegal immigrants. It’s been a tremendous success. We’ve picked up hundreds of criminal illegal aliens from local CA jails despite state law making it illegal for local law enforcement to cooperate with us. This program is a model for the rest of the nation and a proven strategy to compel states to hand over criminal illegal immigrants to @ICEgov.”

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s webpage, “the Central District of California serves the seven counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura. This includes a population of nearly 20 million people – the largest of any federal judicial district in the country. The role of the Office is to enforce the laws and defend the interests of the United States. It does so through three primary litigating Divisions: Criminal, National Security, and Civil.”

A former California State Assemblyman, Essayli, “leads a team of 500 lawyers, special agents, and staff members enforcing federal criminal law.”

Contra Costa County is located in the Northern District of California led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian.

The operation was launched in May 2025, as “a program that seeks to neutralize California’s sanctuary state policy and protect Americans from criminal illegal aliens incarcerated in county jails by issuing federal arrest warrants for them.” The announcement claimed, “The Central District of California…is home to an estimated 1.5 million illegal aliens. Among this population are gang members and other dangerous felons.”

According to a May 19, 2025 FOX News report the operation is “a task force, made up of assets from ICE, HSI (Homeland Security Investigations), DEA, FBI, ATF and Border Patrol.”

An article by the California Post, published earlier Wednesday, entitled, Inside feds’ stealth mission to deport California killers, rapists and child molesters, shared additional details about the operation.

“Federal authorities snared a child molester, a rapist and an accused killer in a sophisticated operation that has rid Southern California of hundreds of criminal illegal migrants” and “has so far collared 362 previously deported illegal migrants using federal law to defeat California’s controversial ‘sanctuary state’ rule prohibiting local police from cooperating with immigration agents even if they wanted to.”

An announcement on Wednesday by the Central District office’s PIO, Ciaran McEvoy, provided details about the operation.

“Since its launch last year, Operation Guardian Angel, a program that seeks to neutralize California’s sanctuary state policy, has resulted in 362 arrests of criminal illegal aliens from county jails into federal custody in the Los Angeles area, the Inland Empire, and the Central Coast.

“Operation Guardian Angel’s goal is to apprehend criminal illegal aliens incarcerated in county jails, (who are) prohibited by ‘sanctuary state’ laws from cooperating with federal immigration officials. SB 54, also known as the California Values Act, signed into law (by Gov. Jerry Brown) in 2017, limits state and local police cooperation with federal immigration officers and restricts local resources from being used to remove illegal aliens – including violent felons.

“Operation Guardian Angel works by securing federal arrest warrants for aliens recently arrested by local law enforcement. Once issued, local jails are legally required to honor the arrest warrants and must hand over the criminal illegal alien in their custody to the federal government. 

“The operation began in May 2025 and has resulted in 769 arrest warrants issued, and the actual transfer of 362 defendants – 347 of whom are federally charged with illegally re-entering the United States following removal, or another federal offense. Other federal charges include unlawful possession of a firearm by an alien, unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, using a firearm in drug trafficking or a crime of violence, and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.

“Broken California ‘sanctuary state’ policies endanger the public and cannot go unchallenged by the federal government,” said Essayli. “Operation Guardian Angel is an answer to these misguided policies. Through this task force we are forcing California to do the thing it hates most: handing hundreds of criminal illegal aliens into federal custody to face justice and deportation.” 

“ICE ERO’s mission is to identify, arrest, detain, and remove those who are in the United States illegally,” said Thomas Giles, Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Los Angeles Field Office for Enforcement and Removal Operations. “Unfortunately, California’s politicians are forcing local law enforcement agencies to release criminal illegal aliens back into our communities to create more American victims. Our partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office here in the Central District of California through Operation Guardian Angel allows us to keep rapists, gang members, and murderers, who shouldn’t be in the U.S. at all, off the streets of California. We will not be deterred. We are not going away. We will continue to enforce the laws passed by the people’s representatives in Congress here in California and everywhere in the United States.”

“Among the defendants taken into federal custody under this program are:

• Jaime Rodríguez Ladesma, 70, of Long Beach, an illegal alien from Mexico who was convicted in Los Angeles Superior Court in October 2023 of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 and who was removed in December 2023. He subsequently illegally returned to the United States and was convicted of being found in the U.S. following removal. He was removed to Mexico in March 2026.
• Héctor Bueno-Moreno, 55, of San Luis Obispo, an illegal alien from Mexico who was removed in September 2001 and January 2020, whose criminal history includes a 1995 rape conviction in Kern County Superior Court. He was arrested in August 2025 by the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office on a bench warrant out of Santa Barbara County prior to his federal arrest. He pleaded guilty last year to improper entry by an alien. He was removed to Mexico in September 2025.
• Ricardo López Jaramillo, 50, a.k.a. “Sharky,” of Pasadena, a five-times-deported illegal alien from Mexico and gang member whose criminal history includes multiple felony robbery convictions in Los Angeles Superior Court, and a 2007 conviction in San Diego federal court of three counts of illegal entry, for which he was sentenced to three years in federal prison. In November 2025, he was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to a single-count information charging him with illegal alien found in the U.S. following removal. He was removed to Mexico in June 2026.
• Alejandro Lima Ramírez, 46, a.k.a. “Fidel Garcia Vasquez,” of Santa Maria, a four-times-deported illegal alien from Mexico, whose criminal history includes convictions for drug trafficking, stalking, domestic violence, robbery, theft, and driving under the influence. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office transferred him to federal custody last year after Lima was arrested for drug-and-traffic violations. He is serving a 30-month federal prison sentence after pleading guilty in October 2025 to illegal alien found in the U.S. following removal.
• Andrés Velásquez Ocampo, 37, of Santa Ana, an illegal alien from Mexico who was deported in January 2019 and was arrested in South Gate in May 2025 on drug charges. His criminal history includes convictions for carjacking and hit-and-run with property damage. He pleaded guilty in November 2025 to one count of illegal alien found in the U.S. following removal, was sentenced to three months in federal prison, he was removed to Mexico in December 2025.
• In February 2025, José Cristián Saravia-Sánchez, 31, of Mexico, shot and killed an Inglewood man who tried to stop him from stealing a catalytic converter. Despite the fact he was an illegal alien who had been convicted of vehicle theft, was removed from the United States in 2013, and had been arrested 11 times between June 2022 and August 2024, local law enforcement was prevented by state law from complying with an immigration detainer request. While his state criminal case is pending, he also faces federal criminal charges of illegal alien found in the United States following removal and alien in possession of a firearm.

“Operation Guardian Angel is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, to achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and to protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.”

About Operation Take Back America

Established in March 2025 as a single initiative, Operation Take Back America combines the resources of the DEA’s Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, launched in 1982, and the USDOJ’s Project Safe Neighborhoods Program, launched in 2001, to implement core policy objectives established by President Trump and the Attorney General which were outlined in a memo, here. The focus of the operation is “to address the Justice Department’s core enforcement priorities: stopping illegal immigration, eliminating Cartels and TCOs (Transnational Criminal Organizations)  and ending illegal trafficking of dangerous drugs and human beings.” According to the memo, “In a February 5, 2025 memorandum, the Attorney General established a charging policy around a core principle: in the absence of unusual facts, prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense.”

The operation includes “all efforts to target TdA (Tren de Aragua), MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha), the Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the Northeast Cartel (Los Zetas), New Michoacan Family, United Cartels, the Gulf Cartel, and any other Cartel or TCO designated pursuant to the process established in Executive Order 14157, entitled Designating Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.”

By Trish Heaney, Marketing and Communications Manager, Steve Spraitzar, Public Relations, and Tyler McCarthy, Outreach Associate, White Pony Express

ANTIOCH, Calif. – White Pony Express (WPE) and Kaiser Permanente partnered to hold a Drive-Thru Giveaway Saturday on August 1, 2026, at Kaiser Permanente Antioch Medical Center, distributing groceries and essential goods to 200 local families while marking a milestone of 32 million meals rescued and delivered to Contra Costa County residents since WPE’s founding.

Families were connected to the event through 20 Antioch-based nonprofit partners served by WPE. Each family received two bags of fresh groceries along with hygiene kits, toys, children’s books, and treats. In total, WPE distributed 5,075 pounds of groceries and more than 2,500 hygiene and beauty kits and children’s gifts.

“Extraordinary things are possible when we commit to the shared belief that every one of us belongs to one human family and when one person thrives, we all thrive,” said White Pony Express CEO Eve Birge. “This drive-thru is more than a giveaway — it’s a celebration of a community showing up for itself, with love at the center.”

Antioch Mayor Ron Bernal, who attended the event, pointed to White Pony Express’s outsized role in the city.

“I didn’t realize Antioch gets the most food from White Pony Express out of the whole county,” Bernal said. “This is a great way to address not just food insecurity but having quality food for people — because that’s really the missing element.”

Antioch Councilmember Tamisha Torres-Walker, a longtime WPE community partner, echoed that sentiment.

“White Pony Express has always showed up and showed out and made sure our families had what they needed,” Walker said. “You bring White Pony Express together with Kaiser Permanente, you get two organizations that are caring for people in very practical ways to make sure their families are healthy.”

Events like the August 1st giveaway come as food insecurity continues to climb across Contra Costa County driven by CalFresh cuts, rising grocery and housing costs, and stagnant wages.

White Pony Express was founded on the idea that hunger is not caused by a lack of food, but by a failure to connect existing surplus with the people who need it. Each day, WPE’s staff and 2,000+ volunteers rescue fresh food and essential goods from local grocers, farms, and businesses and deliver it within 24 hours to families across the county — a model that allows the organization to scale and respond quickly as hunger grows more widespread.

About White Pony Express

White Pony Express is a volunteer-powered 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2013 by Dr. Carol Weyland Conner on a simple, radical belief: hunger is not a scarcity problem, it’s a logistics problem. Our mission is to end hunger and poverty by delivering the abundance already all around us to our neighbors in need — with love. Every day, WPE’s staff and 2,000+ volunteers rescue fresh, healthy food and essential goods from local grocers, farms, and businesses, redistributing it within 24 hours to families across Contra Costa County. To date, we’ve recovered and delivered more than 38 million pounds of food through partnerships with 140+ nonprofits, schools and faith-based organizations, guided by the mantra “all of us taking care of all of us”.

City of Antioch’s General Plan Visioning Survey closes Monday, August 17

By City of Antioch

The City’s General Plan will help guide decisions about Antioch’s future, including how our community grows, develops, and evolves in the years ahead.

The City of Antioch is updating its General Plan, which provides goals, policies, and guidelines for the physical development of the City for the next ten to twenty years. The General Plan is intended to reflect the goals, values, and priorities of the Antioch community. The following questions will help the City gain a broad perspective of views and values in the community to help craft a General Plan that is reflective of local concerns and priorities. Your opinion and input are greatly appreciated. Please complete one survey per person. 

This survey is available in English and Spanish. Please use the language selector at the top left of the survey to choose your preferred language.

Esta encuesta está disponible en inglés y español. Utilice el selector de idioma en la parte superior izquierda de la encuesta para elegir su idioma preferido.

Your input matters. If you haven’t taken the survey yet, now is the time to make your voice heard.

Take a few minutes to share your priorities and vision for the future of Antioch, by clicking, here: https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/39bd9883638640bd9e9c07cd33578f3e.

Your Voice. Our Future. Help shape Antioch!

For more information visit Antioch General Plan.

By City of Antioch

You’re invited to the Jacobsen Park Ribbon Cutting to celebrate its reopening. Join the City of Antioch as we celebrate improvements on Friday, August 21, from 4:30–5:00 p.m.

Approved by the City Council on August 27, 2024, the work by Frontline General Engineering Construction, Inc. of San Lorenzo was budgeted at a total of $695,830.55 and involved a full renovation of the existing park, including:

• Clearing, grubbing and grading
• Landscaping and irrigation facilities
• Removal and installation of concrete flatwork
• Basketball court rehabilitation
• Hardscaping
• Installation of underground utilities
• Site furnishings and shade structures
• Traffic control measures
• Water pollution control

Jacobsen Park is located near Jacobsen Street & Azevedo Street.

Light refreshments will be served.

We hope to see you there as we celebrate another investment in Antioch’s parks and community spaces!

Allen D. Payton contributed to this report.

By Antioch Police Department

We will be hosting a community meeting on Thursday, August 13, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. at Worth Shaw Community Park, 801 James Donlon Blvd. We encourage you to attend, as this is a valuable opportunity to ask questions, receive helpful information, and engage directly with your Police Department. A photo of the meeting location is attached for your convenience

By Jess Jollett

On Tuesday, August 11, 2026, the Contra Costa Immigrant Rights Alliance (CCIRA) is hosting a press event to urge the Board of Supervisors to pass a strong countywide ordinance creating the necessary barriers to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies from pillaging and looting Contra Costa County resources. 

For over a year, immigration attorneys, advocates, and community members have worked to propose language and advocate for a strong ordinance. Contra Costa is one of the few Bay Area counties without this protection. Neighboring counties of Alameda, San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma all have non-cooperation ordinances in effect. And the draft proposed by county counsel is insufficient to protect our residents and not in compliance with the recent guidance issued by the CA Attorney General.

Inspired by the Summer 2025 TRUTH Act and ICE’s expanding presence in Contra Costa, the Contra Costa Immigrant Rights Alliance, Lift Up Contra Costa, and its allies have been advocating for a non-cooperation ordinance that:

• Prohibits the usage of our county’s resources and funds for ICE operations.
• Calls for the creation of county-wide policies to protect county workers.
• Safeguards our county data from being raided by ICE agents.
• Ensures that county contractors do not comply or cooperate with ICE agents.
• Demands that the Sheriff Department report its contact with federal agencies.

Since January, over 50 people have died in ICE custody. We have also witnessed ICE’s rogue extrajudicial killings in Minnesota, Houston and Biddeford. Local ordinances are one answer to these deadly federal immigration enforcement tactics. These unprecedented times require brave leadership and action. We’re calling on the Board of Supervisors to do their duty and to stop delaying. Contra Costa deserves better.

What: Press Event Demanding the Passage of a Strong ICE Non-Cooperation Ordinance in Contra Costa County 

Confirmed Speakers: 

Danny Espinoza, Director, Lift Up Contra Costa 

Rev. Deborah Lee, Executive Director of Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity

Brandon Dawkins, VP of Organizing, SEIU 1021

Cameron Sasai, Mayor of the City of Pinole 

Miosotti Tenecora, Staff Attorney, Immigrant Legal Resource Center

Betty Gabaldon, Concord Organizer Manager, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy 

Tony Bravo, Executive Director, United Latino Voices 

Devin Williams, 3rd Vice President, East Contra Costa County NAACP Executive Committee and Vice Chairperson, Antioch Police Oversight Commission

Marifer Marina, Organizer, Monument Impact

Katie Ricklefs, Chair, Democratic Party of Contra Costa

Where: 1025 Escobar Street, Martinez

When: 9:30 am on Tuesday, August 11th 

By law California is already a sanctuary state as, according to iceoutofca.org, “California has long enacted laws that restrict state and local law enforcement from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in immigration enforcement actions. The most significant of these is the California Values Act (SB 54), which took effect on January 1, 2018,” which “protects the safety and wellbeing of all Californians by limiting use of state and local resources for mass deportationsand ensures that important institutions such as schools, health facilities, and courthouses remain accessible to everyone. SB 54 remains legally binding state law, and states and localities continue to have the constitutional right to opt out of federal immigration enforcement.

In addition, the County complies with other state laws regarding law enforcement dealing with undocumented immigrants illegally residing in the U.S. They include:

• “TRUTH Act (AB 2792, 2017) – Requires local law enforcement to provide “Know Your Rights” information and copies of ICE holds, notifications, or transfer requests to individuals affected.
• “TRUST Act (AB 4, 2014) – Prohibits local jails from holding individuals beyond the time ICE requests, with some exceptions.”

As previously reported, the Board of Supervisors will hold its annual state TRUTH Act Community Forumto discuss civil immigration enforcement activities during their regular meeting at 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.

Allen D. Payton contributed to this report.

Part of the General Plan Update process

By City of Antioch

We were at the Antioch Library today, Wednesday, July 29, 2026, for a General Plan Visioning Workshop, as part of the General Plan Update process, connecting with residents to hear what they love about Antioch and what they’d like to see in the years ahead.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by to share ideas, ask questions, and help shape the vision for our community’s future.

Missed us today? There’s still another opportunity!

Tomorrow, Thursday, July 30th

10:30 AM – 1:00 PM

Antioch Library – 501 W. 18th Street

Your input helps guide decisions about housing, transportation, parks, economic development, public spaces, and more. We hope to see you there!

For more information about the General Plan Update or to take the online survey visit https://antioch.generalplan.org.