RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Around the country communities are banding together to block encroachment by federal immigration agencies, preventing the construction of detention centers, filing lawsuits against threatened surges or creating “ICE free zones.”
In Riverside County, where a majority of residents are Latino, organizers recently forced the cancellation of a local recruitment event for Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
“I don’t know how I would feel having the city help me try to get employment and there are [immigration] agents there,” said Odeh Gammoh, co-chair of the Inland Empire chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
The group was behind efforts aimed at drumming up community resistance to a planned CBP hiring event in Moreno Valley, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles and a major hub for communities across the Inland Empire. Approximately 62% of residents in the city identify as Latino.
Social media post prompts community response
When the Moreno Valley Business & Employment Resource Center (BERC) first announced plans to host the April 14 event on Instagram, word spread quickly. Members of DSA responded, attacking the agency for its role in the Trump Administration’s aggressive campaign of detentions and mass deportations.
“These agencies are responsible for tearing families apart, targeting our neighbors, and enforcing a system built on fear and displacement,” they posted to the Instagram announcement. “We are not against BERC,” the message continued. “We are against CBP and ICE being welcomed into our community in any capacity.”
BERC reportedly fielded numerous calls from concerned residents following the message.
Riverside and neighboring San Bernardino counties were among those targeted by immigration enforcement operations beginning last year. The Inland Empire is also home to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, where four immigrants — all of them Mexican nationals — have died since September 2025.
A string of local incidents have also put immigration enforcement agencies in the spotlight, including the shooting of a U.S. citizen by federal agents in the city of Ontario, and an assault case involving a confrontation between a man claiming to be an immigration officer and a 17-year-old male who is also a U.S. citizen in Temecula.
A DHS hiring spree
Questions, meanwhile, continue to swirl around hiring practices at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and CBP. DHS saw a massive surge in new hires in 2025, thanks to passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act which diverted some $191 billion in additional funds to the agency.
ICE added over 12,000 new officers/agents last year, a 120% increase, while CBP saw an 84% increase in new hires. Recruitment efforts included $50,000 signing bonuses. A recent investigation by the Associated Press raises questions over vetting processes as new hires came with criminal records, financial problems or issues with past employers.
According to Gammoh, DHS hiring practices “prey on vulnerable people” eager to find work in an unstable economy, adding that bonuses and other “sweeteners” point to the fact that many people in fact “don’t want to do that work.”
A report from UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute (LPPI) shows that about half of CBP employees and 30% of ICE employees are Latino. The high numbers are the result of long standing education and income disparities, according to LPPI Director Amada Armenta.
“Latinos are drawn into these jobs because in some regions, they are the best jobs there are,” Armenta said during a recent event highlighting the report’s findings. “These are high-paying jobs that offer an entry into the middle class.”
‘They do have a voice’
Gammoh also stressed that the now cancelled Moreno Valley event would have violated a county resolution that the Moreno Valley City Council itself voted to approve assuring residents — regardless of immigration status — of their safety when dealing with local or state government agencies.
He compared it to law enforcement collaborating with immigration agents, which is prohibited by California’s sanctuary law, saying the event would have made the “community feel unsafe.”
Moreno Valley Mayor Ulises Cabrera confirmed the cancellation in a comment on Instagram, where he thanked community members “who reached out and shared their concerns.”Â
Mayor Cabrera declined an interview request with American Community Media to comment further on the matter.
In an email statement to American Community Media, Moreno Valley Public Information Officer Marc Lyncheski indicated that, “It should be important to note that it was not the City or the BERC that canceled the event. It was the CBP that requested the cancellation.”
American Community Media reached out to CBP to confirm the reasons for the cancellation, and the agency indicated in an email statement that “CBP recruiters did not attend a recent Business and Employment Resource Center event at the organizers’ request.”
Gammoh sees the cancellation as a win for the community. “I think the only reason they even had this planned is that they didn’t think people would care,” he said. He also urged residents to recognize their influence in local decision-making.
“They do have a voice, and they can organize,” said Gammoh. “They do have power, especially at the local level.”
Roxsy Lin is a California Local News Fellow with the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
