Perris Mayor Michael Vargas has advised residents to stay indoors following reports of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in the area. In a video posted on the city’s Instagram and Facebook pages on Wednesday (July 9), Vargas urged residents to remain calm, stay indoors when possible, and be aware of their rights. He emphasized, “Do not go out unless necessary and do not open the door to strangers.”
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that, as of 2024, 78.3% of Perris’s 83,032 residents identify as Hispanic or Latino. The city’s spokesperson, Stephen Hale, declined to provide further details about the mayor’s statement or the circumstances leading to it, stating that the mayor’s message speaks for itself.
Between June 6 and June 22, immigration agents arrested over 1,600 people in the greater Los Angeles area, including at car washes, construction sites, and day laborer hubs. This crackdown has prompted community-run networks to track and share information about immigration enforcement efforts. ICE has not yet commented on the operations in Perris.
In May, the Trump administration labeled Riverside County as a “sanctuary jurisdiction,” but this designation was criticized and later removed by the Department of Homeland Security. Despite this, Riverside County continues to deny its status as a sanctuary jurisdiction. In 2017, California’s Senate Bill 54, known as the “California Values Act,” was signed into law, limiting state and local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal immigration agencies. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge against this law in 2020.
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