Yolo County’s top law enforcement officials are “reading from the same sheet of music” when it comes to assisting federal agents round up allegedly illegal immigrants.

They won’t.

That was the consensus during a Community Forum held at the Yolo County Office of Education Monday where representatives from the District Attorney’s Office, Sheriff’s Office as well as Davis, Winters, West Sacramento and Woodland assured residents their primary mission is to assist victims of crime.

Approximately 130 people attended the event in person, while another 170 were reportedly watching through their computers on Zoom. Many attending in person were school district trustees, educators or others in elected positions.

Hosted by the Office of Education and moderated by Yuba Community College Trustee Jesse Ortiz, the seminar was meant to reassure immigrants that local law enforcement officials aren’t in the business of arresting so-called illegal immigrants.

The seminar was scheduled due to growing fears on the part of local, state and national immigrants that they could be forced into internment camps or kicked out of the country following threats from incoming President Donald Trump that he wants to deport between 15- and 20 million people during his administration.

But even if Trump makes good on his campaign promises, that doesn’t mean Yolo officials will offer their help.

Yolo Sheriff Tom Lopez told how, as a 7-year-old boy growing up in Esparto, he watched as “those ugly brown vans” from the border patrol showed up one day, and he saw people running away through the fields.He wondered at the time who was going to pick the crops.

“It was hard for me to understand then, and it’s harder for me to understand today,” he said, adding, “We don’t care who you are. We’re here to protect victims of crime.”

Yolo County Superintendent of Education Garth Lewis said he had heard there were 31,000 agricultural workers in Yolo County and that as many as two-thirds might be undocumented, or around 8,000.

But while those 8,000 might be at risk, officials emphasized again and again, that although they could do nothing if immigration agents acted on their own, it wouldn’t be with the consent or assistance of police or the District Attorney’s Office.

In fact, as Lopez said, he couldn’t recall when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents ever asked him for help.

District Attorney Jeff Reisig echoed earlier statements from Davis Police Chief Todd Henry that “trust” was the most valuable piece of equipment on an officer’s toolbelt and there could be no trust if people thought local police were assisting federal agents.

“If our entire community doesn’t trust us, we can’t do our jobs,” Henry said, to which Reisig added that he can’t get people to testify at trials or come forward with information about crime if his investigators or attorneys aren’t trusted.

That said, all those in law enforcement agreed that they are powerless to stop immigration agents from carrying out their jobs. But they added that federal agents rarely, if ever, inform them of their actions.

“I think you’re hearing we’re all on the same sheet of music,” Lopez said. “We do not cooperate with ICE.”

Lopez said over the past five or more years he has been sheriff, he has seen thousands of people pass through the county jail, and of those thousands, only 185 could have been considered illegal.

County protocols state that if an immigration agent wants to see an alleged illegal immigrant, then they first have to ask sheriff’s officials, who then ask the inmate if they want to talk to the agent. Lopez said of those 185 people, only three ever agreed.

Regarding school children, West Sacramento Police Chief Robert Strange said it was difficult for his officers to get information from area schools and he was doubtful things would be any different with federal agents.

“It is difficult at times, and this is a good thing, that school districts across this county that I’ve interacted with, it’s tough to get information from them. They protect your kids’ information, even from us unless we have good cause. That’s a good thing and I think if ICE tried to get information it would clearly that much more difficult.”

He noted that state law is even more restrictive in what information can come from a school district. “I think I can say with confidence, as a police chief, not a school administrator, that the level of cooperation would not be very high.”

Henry noted that there is new legislation moving through the state Legislature that would make it even more restrictive to get information about children in school.

“But right now, if ICE showed up and said they wanted information on a child, it would get them nowhere,” he said.

The seminar was similar to one held in April 2017 where people were given information on their rights if taken into custody — chief of which is to remain silent. That forum was hosted by then-state Senator Bill Dodd and Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.

It was attended by fewer than 30 people, who listened as Dodd and Aguiar-Curry, along with immigration law professors from UC Davis, spoke about not only state legislation approved to protect immigrants but about their rights under the law.