American Canyon anti-ICE protests: ‘Our children don’t deserve this’
There were nine transfers of people to ICE from Napa custody in 2025
American Canyon was abuzz on Friday with a student walkout and protests that encircled one of the city’s busiest intersections.
That afternoon, protesters stood along Highway 29, shouting, waving signs and dancing as part of the nationwide anti-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) walkout and protests. These demonstrations came on the heels of a student walkout from American Canyon High School, in which several dozen students left school with anti-ICE protest signs shortly after 10 a.m.
Along the road in front of city hall, trucks zooming by, three young people held signs decrying ICE actions. “Chinga La Migra,” read one, and “No one is illegal on stolen land” read another. They chanted “you know you see it” as people honked from cars, some throwing up middle fingers.
“City Hall is the place to be at right now,” said Malakai Rodriguez, a junior at American Canyon High School. He and fellow protester Brianna Perez, also a junior, had stayed out of school for the walkout.
“We’re getting a lot more support than we are hate,” Rodriguez said.
Down the road, a group of 34 protestors was stationed right across from the city’s welcome sign at American Canyon Road and Highway 29 near Safeway. The group was split in two, with 12 across the street so the protest could flank both sides of the highway. They were greeted by enthusiastic calls and honking from hundreds of passersby.
Since the start of January, there have been eight known deaths related to ICE officers around the U.S. Six of those who died were people imprisoned in ICE detention camps, including several alleged suicides; two have been the highly-publicized shooting deaths of protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota.
While Napa hasn’t had the degree of immigration raids as other areas, ICE’s presence is still felt.
“We haven’t had the very public displays of broad sweeps,” said Supervisor Belia Ramos in a phone call on Friday. “But none of that is comforting to our community. We have concerned citizens, we have community members that are fearful right now.”
Ramos sits on a county task force formed following the passage of California’s SB 54 in 2017, which limits state and local police in California from acting on ICE’s behalf. She and other Napa County supervisors get regular reports of certain ICE arrests, but not all of them.
A federal agency, ICE detains people in two ways: through its own officers via raids or targeted arrests, and through “custody transfers” of people held in city and county jails to ICE detention centers — a longstanding practice. Local officials have to rely on resident reports for other ICE activity, since the agency isn’t required to notify local law enforcement of its actions.
In 2025, there were nine custody transfers of people from Napa jail to ICE detention, according to a report from the Department of Corrections following a records request by the Current. Of those nine, seven people had immigrated from Mexico, one from El Salvador and one from India. Details about their arrests and identities were not released.
At Friday’s protest, Michelle Marquez held back tears. “Our children don’t deserve this,” she told the Current. “There are so many people separated from their families. Mothers and fathers. Rounded up like cattle. It hurts my heart.
“This is all I can do — I’m going to do it,” Marquez said.
As cars sped by the larger demonstration, a speaker blasted rock hits from bands like Queen and Buffalo Springfield while protesters danced and waved to drivers. American Canyon resident Clarence Mamaril manned the speaker, wearing a zip-up dinosaur suit with a sign that said “Abolish ICE-a-saurus.”
By day, Mamaril works for Catholic Charities as an immigration lawyer for Solano and Yolo counties, where he says he’s face to face with the results of President Donald Trump’s “racist policies.” Having local support was heartening for Mamaril.
“Unfortunately, I know better than most people how bad it is out there,” he told the Current. “In American Canyon, something like this protest is really important to me. I can’t do what I do out there unless I know I have a community that’s gonna have my back here.”
Mamaril’s team fields some 400-600 immigration applications at any given time. In the past year, he said, almost every one of those applications has gotten pushback. “They’ve lost papers, they’ve canceled interviews, denied applications for bullshit reasons.”
Mamaril added that ICE activity in Napa is quieter than some counties. “It’s not mass raids, it’s not Minnesota-scale, but it’s here.”
In July, one Napa resident was visited by ICE several times, and refused to open the door, which was documented by Ring camera footage, but that and other possible arrests are not communicated to officials by ICE.
By the Safeway gas station, two young women approached the demonstration with signs. It was the first protest either had ever been to.
“I don’t usually come out,” one said, laughing nervously, but she wanted to show her support. They quickly got the hang of things, greeting the group and waving their signs to passersby.
