ICE detains three men outside SoCal courthouse, raising concerns for local immigration advocates

At least three men were taken into custody by federal agents outside a San Bernardino County Superior Court on Thursday in what advocates are calling an alarming increase of immigration enforcement actions outside courthouses in the region.

Federal immigration agents were seen in the courthouse parking lot in Rancho Cucamonga around 9 a.m. and began arresting individuals as they left the building until about noon, advocates said. Witnesses told ABC7 one man was surrounded by agents in the parking lot with his son just before 9:30 a.m. Video showed masked agents surrounding an individual, handcuffing him and placing him in the back of an SUV.

Similar detentions have occurred outside courthouses in San Bernardino and Riverside in recent months, said Lizbeth Abeln, executive director of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice.

Federal agents arresting a man outside of a courthouse in Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday.

(KTLA)

“We see this as a violation of their due process,” Abeln said. “It’s not like ICE is arresting them based off immigration violations. They’re trying to target people who have had some type of encounter with law enforcement. But, in America, we have due process which means you’re innocent until proven guilty. But in these cases people don’t have the opportunity to end their case or close it out.”

The Department of Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol were at the courthouse on Thursday for targeted immigration operations and arrested three people, two of whom were from Columbia and one from Mexico.

Godofredo Chiquete Lopez overstayed in the United States after entering in 2007 on a tourist visa, according to Homeland Security. He’s charged with two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon that was not a firearm, a misdemeanor count of hit and run and potential sentencing enhancements for great bodily injury on a person associated with an incident in 2023. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, according to San Bernardino County court records.

A Homeland Security spokesperson said another person taken into ICE custody, Alexander Pacheco Sabogal, of Columbia, was arrested on suspicion of battery. No criminal charges have been filed against Sabogal in San Bernardino County, according to court records.

“An immigration judge ordered him removed in 2023 after he failed to show up for his hearing,” a Homeland Security spokesperson wrote in an email.

Cesar Andres Mendez Garzon, who was also taken into custody on Thursday, is from Columbia and entered the United States in 2023 in Arizona. He did not show up for a hearing in 2025 and an immigration judge ordered his removal, according to federal officials.

It is not clear why Garzon was at the courthouse on Thursday. He is not charged with any crimes in San Bernardino County, according to online court records.

“We need state and local law enforcement engagement and information, so we don’t have to have such a presence on the streets,” a Homeland Security spokesperson wrote in an email to The Times. “Elected officials who refuse to cooperate with DHS law enforcement are wasting law enforcement time, energy, and resources, while putting their own constituents in danger.”

The Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, which advocates for immigrants in the region, said at least 33 people have been detained at or near the Rancho Cucamonga courthouse since October.

“Those are just the ones we know about,” she said.

California law prohibits civil arrests inside courthouses, but arrests outside the buildings and in the parking lots have occurred periodically since the Trump administration began ramping up immigration enforcement last summer.

In January 2025, ICE issued interim guidance that said officers can conduct civil enforcement actions in or near courthouses “when they have credible information that leads them to believe the targeted alien is or will be present at a specific location, and where such action is not precluded by laws imposed by the jurisdiction in which the civil immigration enforcement action will take place.”

A bill proposed by Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes (D-San Bernardino) would force federal officers to have a warrant signed by a judge before they could arrest someone for a civil offense outside a state courthouse.

Abeln said the coalition is concerned that the presence of immigration officers in courthouse parking lots will dissuade others — even citizens — from going to the building for hearings or to handle typical business like traffic tickets.

“It puts entire families at risk,” she said. “Maybe they do target an individual, but their family happens to be non-citizens and then they’re targeted whether it’s on site or after the fact. It’s a safety concern.”

California Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero said in a statement in July that arrests could have a “chilling effect” at the court.

“Making courthouses a focus of immigration enforcement hinders, rather than helps, the administration of justice by deterring witnesses and victims from coming forward and discouraging individuals from asserting their rights,” she said.