Man pleads guilty to slashing immigration agents’ tire during Home Depot raid, avoids jail time
By Jonathan Ayestas, Daniel Macht
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SACRAMENTO, California (KCRA) — A Sacramento man pleaded guilty to slashing a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle tire during an immigration raid at a Sacramento-area Home Depot last year.
Jose Manuel Castillo Jr. will avoid jail time as part of a plea agreement.
The U.S. Department of Justice accused Jose Manuel Castillo Jr. of depredation of government property.
On July 17, 2025, masked Border Patrol agents arrested several people at the Home Depot parking lot at 4641 Florin Road. During that operation, the DOJ said Castillo was seen walking toward the rear passenger side of a Border Patrol SUV. Nearby agents later heard a pop and hissing noise and spotted Castillo walking away from the vehicle.
Agents who saw the flattened tire ordered Castillo to stop and ran after him, DOJ said. After pinning him down and taking him into custody, agents found a folding pocketknife officials said was consistent with the width of the hole in the SUV’s tire.
Castillo’s wife, Andrea Castillo, shared video of agents chasing and tackling her husband down before taking him into one of their vans.
Immigrant advocacy group NorCal Resist said Castillo was a volunteer with the organization and was out documenting arrests.
Castillo was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay a $478.89 fine, $478.89 in restitution and a $25 special assessment.
The DOJ previously said that Castillo faced a maximum penalty of one year in prison a $100,000 fine.
“Mr. Castillo was frightened and shocked, as most Americans are, about masked men, dressed anonymously, armed with weapons of war, grabbing and kidnapping people in public based upon the color of their skin,” Castillo’s attorney Mark Reichel said in a statement. “A federal judge had recently ordered that these roving bands must cease their raids, but they defied the Order of the Federal Court. Mr. Castillo, as a private citizen, committed a low level vandalism of a tire. He has never before been accused of any wrongdoing, and is well known as a respected and law abiding man. He still is.”
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