Category Archives: Benicia Police Department

Benicia, Benicia Police Department, Benicia School Board, Benicia Unified School District

BenIndy’s New Serial: Sheri Leigh on ‘La Migra’

It’s No Game – The Profound Danger of ‘La Migra’

A wall is spray painted with the words 'No One Is Illegal'
Photo by Miko Guziuk on Unsplash.

By Sheri Leigh, May 12, 2023

I’ve lived in Benicia for ten years. Until recently, I was working a demanding job as a school counselor first in Antioch and then in Petaluma, and I had little time to focus on my own community. Benicia was my haven away from the pressure of work where I could stroll downtown on a weekend or a day off, enjoying the cute shops, a glass of wine by the water, and live music. 

Last July, I took the big leap and retired from the public school system. Although I am still working part time, I’m based at home, and I can now pay more attention to issues within our local community and get to know our town leaders. 

It was just this year that the annual ‘La Migra Game’ that Benicia’s high school students are orchestrating hit my radar. 

The title ‘La Migra’ conjures up images of immigration raids […] targeting desperate people who don’t have any resources and are trying to get into this country so that they could have a better life for themselves and their families. It conjures up xenophobia and cruelty. 

I heard a vague reference to the game in passing, when one acquaintance laughingly said, “If Benicia’s biggest problem is that a kid every now and then gets dropped off at Lake Herman as part of a game, then we don’t have a problem.” I didn’t completely understand what she was referring to until I read a statement of ALERT in my email from the Benicia Independent on March 30 of this year. The article was brief, but it cited the physical and emotional dangers of the game and how it taps police resources. 

ICE Agents menace a parade
ICE’s enforcement practices tear American families apart, undermine community trust in law enforcement and create racist narratives primarily targeting Latino individuals. These issues are echoed in and reinforced by the Game. | Uncredited image.

What is ‘La Migra?’

I started investigating and soon learned that the Game has been going on for decades. What I heard initially was that the junior and senior high school students of the community were tracking down younger students, primarily students of Color, kidnapping them, and releasing them in remote areas on the outskirts of town. As a counselor, as a mother, as a grandmother, and as a human being, I was sickened to learn that this was happening right under my nose. 

The title ‘La Migra’ conjures up images of immigration raids on businesses harboring undocumented workers or round-ups near the Mexican border targeting desperate people who don’t have any resources and are trying to get into this country so that they could have a better life for themselves and their families. It conjures up xenophobia and cruelty. 

I was starting to wonder if some of the Benicia high schoolers are engaging in their own miniature, gamified version of weeding out those who are different from themselves. If so, this is a problem – and a big one. 

The pursuit and disposal of those who are different or vulnerable is hardly a new concept. As recently as 30 years ago, the police in Saskatoon, Canada were picking up individuals from the Cree tribe and dropping them off in the night in remote areas during the winter months, when the temperatures sometimes dropped as low as 10-15 degrees below zero F, leaving them to find their way back or freeze to death. I was starting to wonder if some of the Benicia high schoolers are engaging in their own miniature, gamified version of weeding out those who are different from themselves. If so, this is a problem – and a big one. 

I discussed the Game recently with Mario Giuliani, our Interim City Manager. Although he does not in any way condone the Game, he initially responded to my concerns with a reference to the voluntary nature of it. 

I did more research, and yes, there are some students who willingly play the role of victim, probably for the excitement and challenge to reach safety before being captured by the ‘ruthless’ upperclassmen. But I still felt uneasy.

Here are the rules of the Game, as I understand them. Those who are playing the game meet at a predetermined area and time. The self-designated targets are given a 10-minute head start, emboldened with the goal of making it across town to a “safe area” before they are captured. The younger students are on foot, while the upperclassmen, posing as ICE officers, roam Benicia in vehicles, trying to track younger students down, in order to . . . what, exactly? 

The pursuers are caught up in the excitement of the chase, and anyone young and vulnerable out on that night is just another potential target. Or victim.

The rules, the danger and the victims

On the surface, the rules of the Game seem moderately innocent, with consenting targets who have a good chance at making it through the game safely. But when a target is captured, the punishment can be severe and dangerous. For just one example, I learned that one captured student was dropped in the City of San Francisco with no money and no cell phone. Others have been shot with ice pellets. In some cases, the Game has taken on a racialized aspect, with offensive slurs and abuse flying alongside the ice bullets.

Another unfortunate consequence involves the victimization of young people who are not engaged in the game, and may not even be aware of it. The upperclassmen who are in the role of pursuer do not always know which students are participating and which are not, and sometimes they are not even concerned about the difference. The pursuers are caught up in the excitement of the chase, and anyone young and vulnerable out on that night is just another potential target. Or victim.

A lawn with kids running away.
‘La Migra’ is slang for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and is the name used for this controversial game based on ICE agents deporting undocumented immigrants. This image is from a 2018 video showing footage of the Game starting.

The possible dangers of this game are endless. There’s a lack of attention to traffic and public safety on both sides. There are unwitting victims. There’s the trauma of being captured, assaulted, and/or whisked away to an unknown area alone, whether voluntarily engaged or not. There’s the natural cruelty that arises in many humans when they take on the role of predators (those of you who have read Lord of the Flies know what I mean). And so on. 

I need to know more. And I would like for you to know more.

If you would like me to hear and share your perspective on the ‘La Migra Game,’ please contact me through the Benicia Independent.

Starting with this initial editorial, I will be writing and collecting a series of articles reflecting as many perspectives as I can gather and, although I am personally horrified by the Game, I will try to present each perspective as objectively and without judgment as I can. 

To that end, I would like to speak with anyone with any experience with the Game, including law enforcement, anyone involved with the school district, parents, witnesses, and students who have willingly participated on either side, as well as anyone who was out in public on a Game night and affected. 

We all have buy-in.

These are our children.

This is our community. 


As a former school counselor, and an actively engaged mother and grandmother, equity in education and in society have always been a focus of mine. Anyone can become an agent of change towards the betterment of my community and humanity at large, and I consider myself such an agent. 

I would ultimately like to see the La Migra Game disbanded forever or at least morphed into something that satisfies the need for healthy competition but is safer, more cooperative, and confidence-building in nature. 

If you would like me to hear and share your perspective on the ‘La Migra Game,’ please contact me through the Benicia Independent. Remember that it is your story that is critical for others to hear, not your name, unless you would like to be identified. I promise to honor your story and perspective to the best of my ability, and to work toward a safer and more equitable Benicia.

Reach out to Sheri: benindy@beniciaindependent.com
Leave a voicemail for the BenIndy: ‪(707) 385-9972‬

(This is not a live line. You will be sent straight to voicemail.)

LEARN MORE ABOUT ‘LA MIGRA’
Benicia, Benicia Police Department, Benicia School Board, Benicia Unified School District, Racism

ALERT – Dangerous LA MIGRA game Friday

Talk to any Benicia high schoolers you know!

[BenIndy Contributor Nathalie Christian – On Wednesday, March 29, the Benicia Unified School District (BUSD) issued a district-wide warning that the annual occurrence of the racist, violent “game” Benicia High School students call “La Migra” is anticipated to occur this Friday, March 31. For more than 20 years, the La Migra “game” has inflicted deep emotional and often physical harm on Benicia’s vulnerable youth, especially our youth of color. La Migra also claims countless hours of our police department’s time, tying up emergency resources and costing Benicia thousands in overtime wages and related spending. Despite all of this, too many in Benicia consider La Migra a harmless tradition. Although the game occurs off campus and is no way organized or condoned by BUSD, the district is right to call for an immediate end to this event and to warn the community of the imminent danger. – N.C.]
Last year at this time – KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco

Let’s Stop ‘La Migra,’ A Dangerous Game of Chase – March 31, 2023

Posted by Benicia Unified School District 
March 29, 2023

Dear Benicia Community,

We want to bring your awareness to an unsanctioned and dangerous activity that Benicia teens have participated in over the last twenty years, which is an underground, and unwelcomed event in our community. It is a chase-and-capture game referenced as  “La Migra”. This activity happens in the Spring, usually on a Friday evening in late March or in April. We have information that suggests this game may take place on Friday, March 31, 2023.

While this activity is not in any way organized or condoned by the schools, Benicia Unified School District, or the City of Benicia, there is an urgent need to provide our community with information and ask for your partnership in putting an end to this event once and for all. We want to provide awareness about this event and see it stopped for two important reasons:  the inappropriate, racist, and offensive nature of the game and the  incredible safety concerns for our students and innocent bystanders.

“La Migra” is slang for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and is the name used for this controversial game based on ICE agents deporting undocumented immigrants. The event involves older students chasing younger students through the city, trying to catch them, and then possibly transporting or holding the student against their will. The event begins at one location, typically a park in town, with the younger students attempting to get to a second designated location without being caught by an older student. A student that is captured is sometimes dropped off in an unknown location. There are reports of extremely unsafe situations in the course of this event, including unsafe driving, students dressed in all black with masks running through backyards and private property, speeding, physical contact causing injury, unsafe physical detainment, and students being left without the ability to contact someone to pick them up. It is important to stop this activity immediately to keep students from being injured or harmed.

In addition to the physical safety concerns, Benicia Unified School District strongly advocates for respect for all individuals, regardless of race, place of origin, sexual orientation, or disability. A game such as “La Migra” causes harm, both physical and emotional, to members of our community.

We urge every family to discuss this event, use this as an opportunity for education and understanding, and help us put an end to this game in our community.  In a city that has been nominated as a Be Kind city, continuing “La Migra” is counter-productive to this goal.

SEE ALSO
Benicia Police Department, Benicia Police Officers' Association, Police reform, Police unions

Vacaville opinion on local police reform – good questions for all Solano cities

[BenIndy editor: “Defunding” police can mean different things to different people.  I don’t necessarily agree with Mr. Hunt’s opening statement here, but he goes on to raise important questions that should be addressed here in Benicia.  – R.S.]

Solano Voices: Time to discuss police priorities

, by Curtis Hunt, July 5, 2020
Curtis Hunt worked for 15 years as a probation officer and provided counseling for delinquent offenders. He finished his career at Solano County managing a countywide prevention program. He severed six years on the Community Services Commission and 12 years on the Vacaville City Council.

We cannot and should not defund police departments. Defunding the police department will have dangerous consequences and can harm communities.

But, we can and should have serious conversations about police reform, militarization and training of officers and the influence public safety unions have on local elections and city councils. We can and should have a discussion about the role of police in combating social issues.

First, we need to challenge the concept that “hiring more police will reduce crime.” Comprehensive crime reduction has three components: prevention, intervention and suppression. 

Second, we can and should have a discussion on the influence of public safety unions on local councils. The public safety unions are very powerful locally and in Sacramento. They offer local candidates campaign support both financially and more importantly with “boots on the ground.” I ran two successful campaigns, one with their support and one without. The one with their support was more enjoyable.

Third, we can and should have a conversation on skyrocketing costs. Some city budgets contribute up to 80% of their total revenue to police and fire departments. The Sacramento police chief recently commented, “We are down 100 cops.“ The follow up question then becomes, “Why is your budget two times higher than it was five years ago?”

Pension benefits, retired health care and incentive pays are exceeding the revenue-generation capacities of local governments. We are paying more and getting less. This is not sustainable.

Increased pension, health care and salaries prevent cities from hiring more personnel. It is time to ask some serious questions. We  need to have an open, respectful conversation.

Fourth, we should have a conversation about the local sales taxes. Promises made, promises broken. Measure M and Measure P pay salary and benefits for police and fire. When Measure M was passed, the first expense was to hire 11 more police officers at end of budget hearings. At this point cities really have no choice. Cites need to use the local sales tax revenue to fund the personnel. Vacaville will defer capital projects, but the results will be the same as these are all ongoing cost.

We can and should have a conversation about increasing the funding for the prevention and intervention aspect of public safety. We should consider a reduction of salary and benefits, and instead support prevention programs. We should consider supporting PAL, The Leaven, The Boys and Girls Club and other evidence-based after-school programs. We need to increase the Parks and Recreation budget to have affordable after-school programs for working parents. We should target gang prevention efforts, mentoring programs. We should look at job development job — training programs operated in challenging neighborhoods. Cities might explore incentives for local businesses to accept training positions.  

I know the police officers are empathetic and compassionate in their effort to address homelessness. But they are not selected, trained or educated in that area. We should have a multidisciplinary team with only one officer and the remaining positions filled with social workers, VA specialists, mental health workers and housing specialists. We should explore the increased use of family support workers for domestic violence. We should use community service officers for more routine calls.

I know this is not an easy conversation. When you bring this up, you get, “You are either with us, or you are  against us” as a response. Mere mention of any discussion would result in “Man, you don’t like cops.” That approach to the issue didn’t work. We need to heal and the only way to do that is start with an open and honest dialogue.

Don’t defund! Talk and make a plan for a more inclusive, comprehensive approach with prevention and intervention strategies.

Curtis Hunt worked for 15 years as a probation officer and provided counseling for delinquent offenders. He finished his career at Solano County managing a countywide prevention program. He severed six years on the Community Services Commission and 12 years on the Vacaville City Council.

Benicia Police Chief Erik Upson, Benicia Police Department, Police reform

Benicia Police Chief Erik Upson: What we have done and what we are doing…

A few steps the Benicia Police Department is taking for a better future

From Facebook: Benicia Police Department, June 17, 2020

Please watch this short video from Chief Erik Upson regarding a few steps the Police Department is taking for a better future.

More from City of Benicia website:
What we have done and what we are doing…

What we have done

Culture:  Culture trumps everything, including policy and training.  What we have done here is first and foremost focused on creating a culture that is human-focused; an organization that recognizes that we must care about people first, allow our officers the room to care about people and help them in their time of need.  We recognize that nearly everyone, including those who are committing criminal acts, are people too and most are in that position for many reasons, not generally because they are bad people.  Nearly everyone has the ability for redemption, and we want them to become active positive members of our community. We understand part of healing includes revisiting the issue of use of force. I’m proud to share with you two important pieces that have been part of our training and culture. First, we will continue to do everything we reasonably can to avoid force where possible, and secondly only to use the minimal amount of force we must for the sole purpose of protecting the public and ourselves.  We must also ensure that every member of our community feels we are there for them, not just selective members of our community.

Diversity:  We have focused on diversity in our hiring.  We are proud to say we are MORE diverse than the community we serve in nearly every racial category and making great strides in gender diversity.  We understand the need to continue to focus on this.  We believe diversity is incredibly important for two reasons.  First, it allows everyone in the community to see that the police force is inclusive, representative and reflective of them.  Second, and perhaps most importantly, surrounding yourself with diversity is one of the most important ways you can prevent bias and prejudice in yourself.

Bias-Free Policing:  Several years ago we rolled out training based on Dr. Lorie Fridell’s book Producing Bias-Free Policing – A Science Base Approach.  We supplied the book to our Admin team first and worked through the book.  We then provided the book to all supervisors and assigned the reading as homework.  We then had a series of facilitated discussions at staff meetings to go over the book.  Supervisors were then directed to take that training back to line staff.

Community Court:  We were the first agency in Solano County to implement Community Court in partnership with the District Attorney’s Office.  This program diverts low-level offenders to a panel of community members who receive special training.  The panel can assign the person a series of different assignments, tasks, commitments as part of a restorative justice model to make the victim and community whole.  The person then has the record of that arrest expunged off their record.

Carotid Restraint:  We have eliminated the carotid control hold, and will be working on updating our policy to reflect it.

De-escalation Training:  We brought in de-escalation training several years ago, bringing one of the region’s foremost experts to train our staff as well as train a cadre of staff to become de-escalation trainers.  We now weave in de-escalation into our use-of-force trainings.

What we are doing

Bias-Based Calls for Service:  We have begun implementation of a policy that ALL ‘suspicious person’ or ‘suspicious vehicle’ calls with no clearly articulated criminal activity be differed to a supervisor to attempt to weed out any bias-based complaints and cancel police response when appropriate.  The initial direction has been given to staff and we are beginning to draft formal policy language.  This policy will include dispatchers as part of this process as well.  Any patterns of behavior that appears to be bias-based reporting will be forwarded to Administration so attempts can be made to end that behavior through the use of intervention utilizing restorative justice principles.

Investigation of Deadly Force Incidents:  The Benicia Police Department’s does NOT investigate our own deadly force situations, often thought of as Officer Involved Shootings.

Body Worn Cameras:  On June 16th, 2020, the City Council has approved our request the funds to purchase a Body Worn Camera/Taser/Evidence Management system.  This will provide body worn cameras to all our officers and community service officers for enhanced transparency.  An additional part of this system will activate all body worn cameras in the vicinity of the officer who draws either their Taser or their pistol.

De-escalation Training:  We will continue our de-escalation training and will add a component of de-escalation training with every training we do with our protective equipment, such as firearms training.

Bias-Free Policing:  We will push out more formal bias-free policing training to line staff, including providing each of them Dr. Fridell’s book and conducting training based on that book.

Racial Profiling Stop Data Reporting:  Assembly Bill 953 created the Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board (RIPA) and made Stop Data Collection the law in California.  Every police department must begin providing clearly delineated Stop Data to the state within a certain time frame based on size.  The Benicia Police Department is required to begin reporting in April of 2023.  However, we are committing to taking immediate action to begin the process of collecting information so that we can report by the end of 2021. We will begin compiling the data by January 1, 2021.

RIPA reporting requirements chart below:

Number of Officers

 Collect
By		 Report
By
From To
1,000 1,000+ 1-Jul-2018 1-Apr-2019
667 999 1-Jan-2019 1-Apr-2020
334 666 1-Jan-2021 1-Apr-2022
1 333 1-Jan-2022 1-Apr-2023

Community Court:  We will work with the District Attorney to expand Community Court.  We have largely been unable to get many people diverted there due to the limited types of cases and background limitations.  We will work to expand Community Court to include nearly all misdemeanors except for gun, domestic violence, and other of the most serious crimes in this category.  This proven restorative justice modeled approach could be replicated wider as and a critical part of fixing the justice system beyond local policing.

Benicia Unified School District Partnership:  We enjoy an amazing partnership with the School District.  Our School Resource Officers are an enhancement to the school community, not just in terms of safety but in terms of love and kindness and just all-around helping our children.  We have a strong diversion program and limit, whenever we can, contact with the formal criminal justice system.  Those cases are reserved for incidents involving violence or threats of violence or weapons violations.  That said, we think we can further enhance this partnership.  Currently the Police Department pays for one School Resource Officer and the District pays for the other.  After talks with the Superintendent, we have agreed that we will reduce the amount the District pays by $50,000 and that money will be used in District programs directed at reducing bias and prejudice in our schools and community.

Use of Force Reporting:  Any use of force incidents will be reported on our website.