Trump called off Bay Area “surge.” Inside El Tecolote’s emergency response

The past week has been chaotic for Bay Area residents. What began as rumors of immigration raids at Home Depot stores near San Francisco escalated into confirmed reports of federal agents being deployed to Alameda, only for President Donald Trump to abruptly call off the planned “surge” days later.

As our communities come together to heal from the fear that swept through the Bay Area, we’re reflecting on what happened, what we’ve learned, and the vital role newsrooms like ours serving Spanish-speaking immigrants hold in our community’s collective emergency response.

Inside 48 hours of uncertainty

On Tuesday morning, October 21, El Tecolote received tips warning of large-scale immigration raids at hardware stores across the region. Community organizations quickly began checking in with one another, but no one could identify a direct source.

In the face of unverified but alarming information, community leaders echoed a clear message: “Focus on power, not panic.” For our newsroom, that meant making sure our community was connected to trustworthy, fact-based information. Our investigative researcher Yesica Prado sent questions to the Coast Guard and other agencies, hoping to bring clarity.

By Wednesday afternoon, The San Francisco Chronicle broke the story that more than 100 federal agents had been dispatched to the Bay Area. Initially hesitant to amplify an anonymously sourced report, Prado corroborated the story with the U.S. Coast Guard, who confirmed in an email the previous night that it was providing logistical support to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at its Alameda base, and we published our own update.

Within an hour of the news spreading, our newsroom met with Mission Local senior editor Joe Rivano Barros to plan a joint response. Together, we developed a live blog to deliver breaking updates to our audiences during what we knew would be an unprecedented day. Mission Local led editing and production on its website, while El Tecolote focused on translating and distributing timely information and resources in Spanish via WhatsApp.

Our teams went live Thursday morning. Reporters from both outlets documented how advocacy groups such as Bay Resistance organized protests, while Mission Action and others distributed Know Your Rights materials. Local officials reaffirmed San Francisco’s sanctuary commitments.

Early Thursday morning, protesters gathered outside the Coast Guard base as vans carrying CBP agents were spotted entering the facility, resulting in tense stand-offs. Hours later, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced that Trump had told him the planned “surge” would be called off in the city, which the president later confirmed in a Truth Social post.

Questions lingered about what that meant for the rest of the Bay Area, leaving many to wonder if Oakland would be next. In Alameda, protests continued throughout the day, leading to several arrests. That night, Coast Guard officers shot at a U-Haul driver who allegedly attempted to ram into the base, injuring a bystander.

By Friday morning, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee confirmed that Border Patrol operations had been canceled across the entire Bay Area, “for now.” Still, city officials, community leaders, immigrant families and our newsroom remain on edge, watching for any renewed federal action as troops remain stationed in the region.

Preparing for the worst

When Trump was elected president in November 2024, El Tecolote knew our communities would again become a target. This year, ICE has been increasingly detaining members of our community who are trying to comply with the U.S. government and settle their cases in immigration court or check-in appointments, but the city hadn’t yet seen mass raids like those taking place in Los Angeles or Chicago.

As a small newsroom with limited resources, we understood that preparation and partnerships would be key to responding to moments of uncertainty.

Knowing that our traditional digital channels — social media, newsletter and website — mostly reached English-dominant Latinos, we restructured our editorial strategy this year to better serve Spanish-speaking immigrants.

In April, we launched a Spanish-language WhatsApp community, pairing it with our legacy bilingual print publication and community events to ensure residents could access immigration updates, community resources and local news in their language. Through a partnership with the Community News Lab, we also held tabling events and listening sessions for Spanish speakers. Editorially, we focused on creating explainers that would help our readers navigate these complicated policy shifts, and uplifting the voices of impacted people in our community.

In particular, community partnerships with groups like Mission Action, Nuevo Sol Day Laborers Program, Mission Street Vendors, Somos Esenciales and Mujeres Unidas y Activas have been critical to this effort. Just last month, we hosted a community forum with some of these organizations and their members to reflect and answer questions on what safety and trustworthy information mean in a time of heightened immigration enforcement.

Serving our community in real time

During those tense 48 hours, El Tecolote was the only newsroom distributing live updates via mobile devices directly to Spanish-speaking audiences across the San Francisco Bay Area.

Managing Editor and veteran translator Katie Beas, along with reporter Mariana Duran, translated the live blog’s breaking updates, delivering crucial information and voice memos in Spanish. Volunteer Beatriz Johnston monitored Alameda County’s Rapid Response Network, which was fielding a surge of hotline calls. Social video producer Emma García and volunteer Maura Corkery joined Mission Local reporters in documenting the protests outside the Coast Guard base. Researcher Yesica Prado pressed Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Coast Guard for clarification. Editor-in-Chief Erika Carlos coordinated newsroom efforts, while Executive Director Imelda Carrasco oversaw the organization’s emergency planning and made sure staff were cared for.

By the end of the day on Thursday, our WhatsApp group had grown by nearly 800 new members, who were asking questions and adding loved ones to receive trusted updates.

Preparing for what’s next

Despite assurances from city leaders that federal operations have been called off, many community members remain skeptical. And for good reason: Trump’s presidency has been anything but stable and known for frequently reversing course. Like them, the staff and volunteers at El Tecolote will remain vigilant and prepared for whatever comes next.

Our newsroom has several strategies for reaching and engaging Spanish-speaking immigrants in San Francisco, and this week showed just how critical our WhatsApp community has become for delivering accurate, timely information during a crisis. While we acknowledge the security risks with WhatsApp that we make our members aware of, it remains one of the most widely used tools among our communities. At this moment, it allowed us to come together quickly, and we plan to explore additional secure methods for emergency communication in collaboration with our members.

To receive verified updates and Know Your Rights resources in Spanish, join El Tecolote’s WhatsApp Community here. If you have loved ones who could benefit, please share the link with them: https://chat.whatsapp.com/Cf6axQCSyjy9aDf1ojMG8m

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Become part of El Tecolote’s emergency planning by supporting our newsroom with a monthly donation. Your contribution helps us send reporters to the scene during breaking events, press government officials for answers, staff our WhatsApp and emergency-response platforms and pay fair wages for professional journalists doing this critical work.

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