Why is Border Patrol so far inland for Central California arrests? Here’s its jurisdiction
More than 60 Border Patrol agents from El Centro, near the Mexico border, carried out an operation in Kern County that the federal agency says led to 78 arrests.
The sight of federal Border Patrol agents — who could expand operations to Fresno and Sacramento — alarmed residents and undocumented immigrants across Central California who have been unaccustomed to seeing such a significant presence in recent years. The operation also left many with the same lingering question.
Why did the Border Patrol deploy dozens of agents so far inland, in the Central Valley, and so far away from the U.S.-Mexico border?
The short answer, according to experts and Border Patrol, is that the federal agency has the authority to operate in the Central Valley.
And while it’s unclear why the operation took place this week — days before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who during his campaign promised mass deportations of immigrants — the Border Patrol has had a long history of carrying out raids in the Central Valley.
“Our area of responsibility stretches from the U.S./Mexico Border, north, as mission and threat dictate, all the way to the Oregon line,” U.S. Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent Gregory K. Bovino, chief of the El Centro Sector in Imperial Valley, said in a statement.
The U.S. Border Patrol is no stranger to operations in places like Bakersfield, Stockton, Modesto, Fresno and Sacramento, as the now closed Livermore Border Patrol Sector regularly conducted enforcement operations over the region until the mid-2000s, the statement said.
Assistant Chief Patrol Agent David Kim of the El Centro Sector said the three-day “Return to Sender” operation deployed more than 60 agents using both marked and unmarked vehicles. People took to TikTok and social media to report Border Patrol sightings in Fresno and Madera, as well.
César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a law professor at Ohio State University, said that while the Border Patrol has the authority to operate in the Central Valley, it’s uncommon for it to carry out operations this far inland.
But it is allowed because most immigration law applies anywhere in the United States, he said.
“Border Patrol officers are law enforcement officers,” he said. “Like any other federal law enforcement officers, they can exercise their duties anywhere in the United States.”
Both U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Border Patrol are charged with enforcing immigration law, García Hernández said. Border Patrol tends to focus on policing the border, while ICE is focused mostly on enforcing immigration law within the nation’s interior, he said.
But defining their separate areas of coverage can be difficult.
“What’s the difference? Where does the border end and the interior begin? That’s a murky question for which their answer is this general 100-mile rule of thumb,” García Hernández said.
Who did Border Patrol Arrest?
The operation resulted in 78 arrests of subjects unlawfully present in the U.S from from Peru, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador, Mexico and China, according to Border Patrol.
All but one are being transferred to the El Centro Sector for processing, Kim said in a phone call Friday morning.
- One person arrested was a sex offender convicted of raping an 8-year-old girl.
- Another arrestee had an active warrant from the Visalia Sheriff’s Department for a sex offense against a child.
- One subject had a warrant for being a felon in possession of a weapon out of Tulare County.
- Multiple DUI convictions among those arrested, including some that included hit and run and injury enhancements.
- Other criminal histories of those arrested included, according to Border Patrol: multiple DUI convictions including hit-and-run and injury enhancements, felony drug possession, vandalism, burglary, inflicting injury on spouse, and child abuse convictions.
Kim said that of the 78 arrested in Kern County, there were individuals arrested who were not on the target list.
It’s not clear as of Friday morning when federal Border Patrol agents could be carrying out enforcement operations farther north in Fresno and Sacramento, or for how long. Border Patrol agents were headed back to El Centro Sector headquarters on Friday morning, Kim said.
But Bovino said Thursday on social media there were plans for expanded operations in Fresno and “especially Sacramento.”
Kim said these operations are in the planning stages but did not elaborate further.
Is Central Valley included in the 100-mile rule?
This week’s enforcement activity, which immigration advocates described as significant and unusual compared to recent years, sent shockwaves throughout communities across the Central Valley.
“In the past, we’ve seen ICE be the agents that are out there doing this,” said Leydy Rangel, communications director of the UFW Foundation. “But I think it’s pretty new that this time that this is a CBP operation.”
Border Patrol is responsible for securing the U.S. border between the ports of entry. This includes activities such as patrolling the border itself, patrolling areas and neighborhoods near the border and conducting checkpoints, according to CBP.
Immigration officers may also search for non-citizens “within a reasonable distance from any external boundary of the United States.”
The Code of Federal Regulations defines reasonable distance as 100 air miles from any external boundary of the United States.
The Southern Border Communities Coalition, a group of 60 organizations along the border from California to Texas, estimates two-thirds of the U.S. population lives within the “100-mile border enforcement zone.”
According to their map, this 100-mile region includes large swaths of the Central Valley, including portions of Kern, Fresno and other Valley counties.
“It’s not common to see Border Patrol Agents steer beyond the loosely defined 100-mile distance from the border,” García Hernández said.
But it does happen under certain special circumstances, he said. The Border Patrol tactical operations teams have been deployed during events like the 2020 racial justice protests and national security events like the Super Bowl. “Those are discreet exceptions to the rule,” García Hernández said.
The 100-mile limit is more of a general rule of thumb, he said. “It’s not a stark line.”
A spokesperson for CBP was unavailable for comment Thursday on how the agency interprets this 100-mile rule or the nature of its Central Valley operation.
This story was originally published January 10, 2025 at 12:28 PM with the headline "Why is Border Patrol so far inland for Central California arrests? Here’s its jurisdiction."
