Border Patrol raids Home Depot parking lot in Sacramento; multiple people arrested
Masked Border Patrol agents on Thursday raided a Home Depot parking lot in the south Sacramento area, resulting in multiple arrests.
Gregory Bovino, the U.S. Border Patrol sector chief, shared a video on Instagram, saying the operation led to the arrests of eight people for being in the country illegally. One of those arrested is an aggravated felon for charges related to fentanyl trafficking, he said.
The Department of Homeland Security later said “at least 11” people were arrested in the Sacramento operation.
The video also included blurred video of a man who Bovino said was arrested for allegedly impeding or assaulting a U.S. federal officer.
The man’s wife, Andrea Castillo, identified him as Jose Castillo and said he was a U.S. citizen. A video she shared with KCRA 3 showed an agent accusing Jose Castillo of flattening a federal agent’s tire.
KCRA 3 later obtained photos from a witness that showed the tire that had been slashed.
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Here are photos of a Border Patrol vehicle tire that was flattened during Thursday’s operation at a Sacramento Home Depot.
The sector chief said a man was arrested and accused of impeding or assaulting a U.S. federal officer.
Full coverage >> https://t.co/1okQoKo9Di pic.twitter.com/vkpvEVWMTY— kcranews (@kcranews) July 17, 2025
The immigrant advocacy group NorCal Resist said Castillo has since been released.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said it originally got an incomplete call at 7:47 a.m. about armed, masked men in the Home Depot parking lot at 4641 Florin Road. Deputies who responded were waved down by a woman who said her husband had been taken.
Customs and Border Patrol on Thursday evening said officers “arrested numerous illegal aliens, including a dangerous serial drug abuser and dealer with 67 charges” during the Sacramento operation.
CBP identified the man arrested with dozens of criminal charges as Javier Dimas-Alcantara.
Officials said Dimas-Alcantara’s crimes include multiple instances of transport and sale of a narcotic or controlled substance, felony burglary, illegal entry, carrying a loaded firearm in public, providing false identification to a law enforcement officer, felony possession of marijuana for sale, revocation of probation due to a re-offense of possession of marijuana for sale, being under the influence of a controlled substance, multiple instances of poessession of a narcotic or controlled substance, and possession of a controlled narcotic with intent to sell.
Department of Homeland Security
De La Cruz spoke with Andrea Castillo, who said it was her husband Jose’s phone location that was showing up at San Juan Avenue in Stockton, where an ICE field office is located. Andrea stated that her husband is a U.S. citizen with a REAL ID and that they’ve been together for 11 years.
| VIDEO BELOW | Border Patrol agents chase, take man into custody at Sacramento-area Home Depot. See Andrea’s full video
Play Video
Video shared by Andrea shows her yelling at masked officers who are chasing after a man. She can be heard saying repeatedly that he’s a U.S. citizen.
Andrea Castillo
One officer held a can of mace to her face at one point in the video. That same officer can be heard again threatening to mace her.
“Move back, or you’ll be maced,” the officer said.
Another officer threatened to arrest her, claiming that she was impeding the operation.
Agents eventually caught up to Jose, pinning him to the ground.
Andrea asks why he is being detained, to which one officer said that Jose “flatted” one of their tires.
“You guys are all traitors!” Andrea yelled as the officers drove off.
NorCal Resist, an immigrant advocacy group, posted on social media stating that the raid happened at 7:50 a.m. and that one of its volunteers was arrested. The group later identified Jose as the volunteer, stating that he was documenting arrests.
NorCal Resist
NorCal Resist also said that Jose was not obstructing and was only recording the scene.
Several people arrived at the site with signs protesting the raid. The group encouraged people to attend another demonstration later Thursday at the Capitol.
| RELATED | Nationwide protests held against immigration crackdown, including in Sacramento
Jose Castillo works for a works an HVAC company and his truck was left at the Home Depot parking lot.
Andrea Castillo
A statement from Authority HVAC said it confirmed that “Jose provided an I-9, SSN card and Driver’s license. All were submitted and nothing came up that was unusual.” Jose has been with the company for six months and was on the clock.
Public officials react to the raid
“The Border Patrol should do their jobs – at the border—instead of continuing their tirade statewide of illegal racial profiling and illegal arrests,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
Sacramento City Council Member Caity Maple sent the following statement in response to the raid:
“I have been made aware of reports and video footage showing an ICE raid at the Home Depot on Florin Road. I want to say clearly that this is unacceptable.
District 5 is home to many immigrant families who deserve to feel safe and supported. Raids like this do nothing but spread fear and trauma. I’ll be working to get as much information as possible and will continue to stand up for our undocumented neighbors.
To those affected: you belong here, and you are not alone.”
The Home Depot where the raid happened is just outside of her district.
| SEE MORE REACTION | Leaders, officials react to Border Patrol operations in Sacramento
Sacramento Assemblymember Maggy Krell worked as an attorney in the California Department of Justice before being elected to the Legislature last year.
Krell is questioning if the Border Patrol violated a federal court order issued back in April in the Eastern District of California that prohibits federal agents from conducting raids in the region without probable cause or a warrant.
The order is separate from a recent court order in Southern California, that prohibits federal agents from indiscriminate stops in seven counties in that region.
“I think we need an explanation,” Krell told KCRA 3 in an interview on Thursday. “I don’t know what information Border Patrol had before the arrests, but it looks a little suspicious to me that they rounded people up in a Home Depot parking lot where they were probably going to work.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District Court of California said she had no comment.
More operations in Sacramento County
After the Home Depot call, the sheriff’s office said Border Patrol called at 7:51 a.m., stating that its officers were in the parking lot and had since cleared out.
The sheriff’s office said it then got another call at 7:57 from a resident who said masked men broke into their neighbor’s house. The resident told deputies that the neighbor had asked the resident to call 911.
Deputies went to the home and learned it was Border Patrol conducting an operation.
According to the sheriff’s office, it did not assist federal agents in any way. A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said they are aware of other federal operations that happened in the area Thursday, but they do not have specific information on where and when.
The Sacramento Police Department said it is aware of ICE activity that took place at 5:40 a.m. in the 7500 block of Titan Parkway for a specific person. Officers did not assist or participate in the operation.
Concerns about communication between federal and local law enforcement
The immigration raids in Sacramento County raised concerns over the communication between federal and local law enforcement.
The sheriff’s office was first made aware of the enforcement action at Home Depot by a concerned citizen, not a federal agency.
The agency said it received a 911 call at 7:47 a.m. reporting a group of armed individuals at the Home Depot on Florin Road. Four minutes later, at 7:51 a.m., the U.S. Border Patrol notified the sheriff’s office about their enforcement activities in the area.
“This could’ve been a whole lot worse,” Former Sacramento Sheriff John McGinness said, highlighting the dangers when federal and local law enforcement do not communicate. “The most dangerous thing a law enforcement officer does is effectuate a physical arrest. If you don’t have communication, you compromise the safety of that.”
But under a law some say makes California a sanctuary state, local law enforcement is limited in cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. McGinness said people can’t expect that to stop federal agents.
“Everybody should reasonably expect that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol is going to do what they are in business to do. And not everybody is satisfied with the manner in which they do their business,” he said.
An operation far from the southern border
While raids are often associated with ICE, Border Patrol can conduct arrests up to 100 miles away from the border, even though their primary role is at the border.
Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom, whose district includes Stockton, sent a letter to Attorney General Rob Bonta, urging him to investigate whether officers violated any state or federal laws, or constitutional rights.
She also questioned why Border Patrol agents were in Sacramento and Stockton when they are so far from the southern border.
The American Civil Liberties Union said that the 100-mile radius includes the entire coastline. Sacramento is roughly 90 miles from the coast. Learn more about the 100-mile rule here.
The raids come on the same day the U.S. Department of Justice issued requests to sheriffs in multiple major California counties, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, for lists of all inmates in their jails who are not citizens. The DOJ is also requesting their crimes of arrest or conviction and their scheduled release dates.
KCRA confirmed with the DOJ that those requests were sent to the LA County Sheriff’s Department, San Francisco County Sheriff’s Office, San Diego County Sheriff’s Office and Riverside County Sheriff’s Office.
In the release, Attorney General Pamela Bondi said she hopes the counties will voluntarily produce the information but went on to say that the DOJ will “pursue all available means of obtaining the data, including through subpoenas or other compulsory process.”
Although Sacramento and other nearby counties are not included in this list KCRA 3 did reach out and ask the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office if it would be prepared to provide that information if requested.
One spokesperson tells KCRA 3 they would have to receive this request and look through it to even know what steps to take.
“We have not received any official requests. As far as the press release, much of the information is already publicly available, but we are not permitted to provide other information listed in the release per California law (SB 54),” said Sgt. Amar Gandhi, Sacramento sheriff’s spokesperson.
Immigration agents have recently conducted raids at Home Depot parking lots in other parts of California.
Debate over masked federal agents
Masked federal officers have become a point of contention. California lawmakers in the Assembly this week advanced a proposal that would force officers at every level in the state to show their faces when conducting official law enforcement operations.
Officers who don’t comply could face a misdemeanor. This measure exempts undercover officers.
Senate Bill 627 passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee on Tuesday.
Learn more about the bill here.
–KCRA’s Peyton Headlee and Lindsay Weber also contributed to this report.
The Top 5 Financial Scams Targeting Older Adults
8 min readPrint PageShare
- Jessica JohnstonSenior Director, Center for Economic Well-Being
Key Takeaways
- Defrauding older adults is lucrative business. Worldwide, people age 60+ lost a combined $3.4 billion to financial scammers in 2023 alone.
- Most commonly, criminals target older adults with tech support, grandparent, and government impersonation scams—all of which work by gaining trust.
- Knowledge is power. Learn how to identify and stop the top 5 financial scams and what to do if you or someone you know is a victim of fraud.
Related Topics
Financial scams are everywhere these days and no one is immune. And sometimes it leaves older adults with no way to recoup their losses. Worldwide, people age 60 and over lost a combined $3.4 billion to fraud in 2023 alone.1 Behind that shocking figure? More than 100,000 very real people who have been robbed of their savings and financial security.1
“We all need to work together to make sure our seniors, their caregivers, families, and friends know the signs to look for that a criminal is after your money,” said FBI Criminal Investigative Division Assistant Director Michael Nordwall in a Facebook post.
NCOA is here to help. When it comes to stopping online scammers, knowledge is power. Below, we cover the most common scams targeting older adults. We’ll also tell you what to do if you or someone you know encounters one.
Why do financial scammers target seniors?
Fraudsters and con artists tend to go after older adults because they believe this population has plenty of money in the bank. But it’s not just wealthy older Americans who are targeted. Older adults with low income are also at risk for fraud.
Plus, many people are embarrassed to report financial scams. And they can be tough to prosecute. Criminals therefore consider them “low-risk.” However, these scams can be especially devastating for older adults whose ability to recover their losses is limited.
How common are financial scams targeting older adults?
In 2023, 536 people filed complaints with the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging Fraud Hotline. That brings the total number of registered complaints to nearly 12,300 since 2013.
The five scams that top the list of complaints for seniors:2
1. The grandparent scam. The grandparent scam is so effective because it exploits people’s emotions. First, a caller gains trust by tricking their target into volunteering information, like a grandchild’s name. They may say something like, “Hi Gram, do you know who this is?” Then, with that name at the ready, they impersonate the grandchild.
In this scam, fake grandchildren ask for help with car repairs, late rent, a medical emergency, or even to post bond. They pretend to be in distress. They may even beg the grandparent not to tell anyone.
In other versions of this scam, a caller claims to be an arresting police officer, doctor, or lawyer trying to help the grandchild. They prey upon emotions to pressure victims into sending money as quickly as possible. And who among us wouldn’t readily help a cherished relative in desperate financial need? These scams are even harder to identify and resist thanks to artificial intelligence (AI). Today, con artists can clone real voices of real relatives and use them to commit fraud.
People who run grandparent scams often ask to be paid through gift cards or wire transfers. These don’t always require identification to collect, which means victims have no way ever to recover their money. Some victims report that scammers showed up at their homes, posing as “couriers” to pick up the money.
2. Financial services scam. These cons work because they appear to come from a legitimate source: a bank, a mortgage company, or a debt collection agency. Scammers call, text, or send email messages that look and sound perfectly legitimate. They may claim that a checking or savings account has been compromised and ask for personal information, such as a password or Social Security number, to “secure” it. They may promise better rates or terms on a home loan. Or they may threaten arrest for unpaid medical bills—which may or may not exist.
Each of these types of claims is a lie. But scammers know how to be convincing. They can easily fake the information on Caller ID. They know how to make email addresses and links look real. And they often will use threatening language to scare their victims into volunteering sensitive information or sending money. Usually, the people committing this type of fraud will demand immediate payment through a peer-to-peer (P2P) platform.
3. Tech support scams. These scams prey upon the doubts and discomforts that many people have around computers. In fact, when it comes to fraud committed against older adults, tech support scams top the list.2 How do they work? Typically, a person’s computer or phone screen will freeze or go blank. A pop-up message will appear with a phone number to dial for help. When the user calls it, the scammer on the other end will ask for permission to log on to the device remotely. This fake “tech support” representative also may demand a fee to repair the “issue.”
4. Government impersonation scams. In government impersonation scams (also known as government imposter scams), callers pretend to be from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Social Security Administration, or Medicare. They threaten to arrest or deport the person who picks up the phone if they don’t pay their “unpaid taxes”. Or, they may threaten to cut off Social Security or Medicare benefits unless the person provides personal details. This information can then be used to commit identity theft.
Government imposters may demand prepaid debit cards, cash, or wire transfers as payment. Using special technology, they often “spoof” the actual phone number of a government agency or call from the same ZIP code (202 for Washington, D.C., for example). This can trick some people into thinking the caller is from a valid source.
5. Romance scams. As more people turn to online dating, con artists are seizing the opportunity. Romance scammers create fake social media profiles and use them to gain trust and steal money. In some cases, these scammers may be (or pretend to be) overseas. They may ask their victims to pay for visas, medical emergencies, and travel expenses to come to the U.S. Romance scams (also called sweetheart scams) can drag out for a long time. As a result, victims often lose a lot of money. The FTC found that in 2023 alone, more than 64,000 people reported a romance scam, with losses totaling $1.1 billion.2 Get tips for avoiding sweetheart scams.
Other popular scams targeting older adults
- Sweepstakes and lottery scams. The sweepstakes scam is familiar to many of us. Here, bad actors call with good news: the person answering the phone has won the lottery or a prize of some kind. In order to claim their winnings, that person must send money, cash, or gift cards up front—sometimes amounting to thousands of dollars. Supposedly, this money covers “taxes” and “processing fees”. Scammers may impersonate well-known sweepstakes organizations (like Publishers Clearing House) to build trust among their targets. Of course, no prize is ever delivered. Sometimes, fraudsters convince people to send even more money by telling them their winnings will arrive soon. Many continue to call people for months and even years after defrauding them out of an initial sum of money.
- Robocalls and phone scams. One common robocall is the “Can you hear me?” call. When the person who answers says “yes,” the scammer records their voice and hangs up. The criminal then has a voice signature to authorize unwanted charges on items like stolen credit cards. Robocalls use automated technology to dial large numbers of households from anywhere in the world. While there are legal uses for this technology, robocalls can also be used to carry out a variety of phone scams. These include false claims about expiring car or electronics warranties. Just like government impersonation calls, scammers often spoof the number they’re calling from to make it seem like they’re from a trusted organization. Yet another popular phone scam is the “impending lawsuit” scam. In this case, someone receives an urgent, frightening call from a person pretending to be from a government or law enforcement agency (like the IRS or the police). They are told if they don’t pay a fine by a certain deadline, they will be sued or arrested for some made-up offense.
- Business imposter scams. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has found that at a business imposter scam takes a heavy financial toll on consumers age 60 and older.3 These criminals pretend to be from a business or charity, which makes them seem trustworthy. Like government imposters, business imposter scammers can fake their caller ID to make it seem like a legitimate communication. These fraudsters will try to convince someone to send money or a gift card or share personal information.
- Investment scams. This type of scam involves the illegal or alleged sale of financial instruments that typically offer low risk and guaranteed returns. The use of cryptocurrency (digital assets, such as Bitcoin) is common in investment scams. Cryptocurrency-related investment fraud cost adults age 60 and over $716 million in reported losses in 2023.1
- Medicare and health insurance scams. Every U.S. citizen or permanent resident age 65 and over qualifies for Medicare. This makes the program a prime tool for fraud. In Medicare scams, con artists pose as Medicare representatives in order to convince older adults to share their personal information. Scammers might also provide bogus services at makeshift mobile clinics, then bill Medicare and pocket the money. Medicare scams often follow the latest trends in medical research, such as genetic testing.
- Internet and email fraud. Some older adults come to technology late, and their learning curve is therefore steep. That makes them easier targets for internet and email scams. These scams include pop-up windows that look like anti-virus software; in reality, these windows install computer viruses when clicked on. These viruses can expose personal information or even disable the computer until a person pays a lot of money to have it fixed. (Sometimes this is called “ransomware.”) Internet firewalls, built-in virus protection, and other safety precautions can help prevent this type of fraud. However, users must know about these tools—and it can be hard to keep up with the latest ones. Another scam, called a “phishing” scam, uses emails and text messages that seem legitimate. They appear to come from a well-known bank, credit card company, or online store. These messages may request personal data, such as a log-in or Social Security number, to verify an account; or they may ask the recipient to update their credit card info. Scammers use this information to steal money or additional personal details. Find out how to protect yourself against phishing scams.
What to do if you think you’ve been scammed
Scams are specifically designed to catch us off guard, and they can happen to anyone. There’s nothing to be ashamed of if you think it’s happened to you. Keep important phone numbers handy, including the local police, your bank, and Adult Protective Services.
“It’s a heartbreaking fact that scams have wiped out people’s retirement savings,” said Lois Greisman, Associate Director, Division of Marketing Practices at the FTC. “If a business, government agency, or even a grandchild in need contacts you, it’s critical to check who you’re really dealing with. Never panic or react quickly. Contact them at a number you know is real to verify.”
To obtain the contact information for Adult Protective Services in your area, call the Eldercare Locator, a government-sponsored national resource line, at 1-800-677-1116 or visit its website.
You can also report scams online to the FTC. Sharing your experience can help prevent it from happening to someone else.
