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But in a way, it wasn’t that surprising.

Peeking out a window in the door, then her front window, Gargasz said she saw about a dozen agents, some of them heavily armed, at least one masked. The visit around 8:30 p.m. reminded her of the news she’d been seeing out of Los Angeles and other places, but it was at her home not far from Doolen Middle School.

“When I got the knock on the door at first, it was so loud, I didn’t really understand. The intensity of it was shocking,â€� said Gargasz, 73, a photojournalist who formerly worked for the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Citizen. “I thought it was an ICE raid and they had the wrong address.â€�

It wasn’t, but she didn’t know that yet.

The way the incident played out serves as a warning for Southern ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ residents in the era of extreme immigration enforcement. It’s possible there will be more incidents like this, and we need to be prepared for how we want to react.

We know this not just because increasing immigration arrests is a stated Trump administration policy, especially in Democrat-run cities like ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, but because of the “big beautiful billâ€� Congress is considering. It puts around $168 billion in spending toward immigration and border enforcement, a huge amount that will add more agents with less to do along the border.

Gargasz knew nobody was in her home except herself and her dog, so she wondered what these agents, some with “Border Patrol� on their uniforms, could possibly want.

“They’re telling me ‘Open the door, Open the door,’ “ she said.

Fearing what might happen if she didn’t, eventually Gargasz did let the agents in.

“I was fearful in the sense that there seems to be violence attached to this immigration enforcement in the current state,� she said. “I wouldn’t put it past anybody if they thought I was being uncooperative to throw me on the ground and handcuff me.�

Border Patrol pursuit

As it turns out, this was not an ICE operation. It was a Border Patrol pursuit that happened to end up in the city, something that occurs pretty rarely.

In a written statement, Customs and Border Protection explained the incident this way: About 6:40 p.m. Tuesday, Nogales-based Border Patrol agents tried to stop a vehicle just north of Patagonia on ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 82.

A ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥-based air crew located and began following the vehicle as it headed north. Around South 12th Avenue and West Columbia Street in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, the vehicle stopped and two people got out, with Border Patrol agents on the ground arresting one.

The driver switched vehicles after that, but the air crew continued following and saw the new car driven to a unit adjacent to hers in the 3300 block of E. Bermuda Street. Three people fled, but only two were arrested.

“It had nothing to do with what you’re seeing in L.A. or Chicago or whatever,â€� said Customs and Border Protection Spokesman John Mennell. “It was a failure to yield from the border that ended up in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.â€�

Because one person got away, Gargasz’s quiet night intersected with this growing Border Patrol operation to find a single, possibly undocumented person. The man leading them identified himself as a special agent and gave her a name she didn’t remember.

An ICE spokeswoman, Yasmeen Pitts-O’Keefe, said the agent recalls saying his title, full name and agency, Homeland Security Investigations, twice.

“I asked them what they were doing or what they wanted,� she said. “I kept telling them there’s nobody in here. Just me and my dog, that’s it. There’s nobody else in here.�

After she consented, they asked her to step outside, and she brought her dog with her and waited as four agents went inside, guns drawn, and looked through the house and out back. It took just a few minutes.

By the time the agents left, a small crowd had gathered outside. Someone yelled at the masked agent to take the mask off, Gargasz said.

She figured it must not be a dangerous situation, because police will tell you, and any people outside, to go inside if they’re looking for someone dangerous.

The enforcement climate

Both sides could have handled the incident better. Gargasz wishes in retrospect she had confirmed to her satisfaction the identity of the men outside with guns. She wishes she had asked for a warrant, though, of course, they didn’t have one because this was an unfolding pursuit.

You can always simply do what the agents ask. That’s up to your tolerance and evaluation of the situation.

But if you’re not comfortable, here are some other suggestions, a couple of which I collected from speaking with Alba Jaramillo of the Coaliciaon de Derechos Humanos:

— Resist being intimidated. You are in your rights to say no if the agents do not have a judicially issued search warrant. Even if they demand, you have the right to say no.

— Always be videotaping. If anything goes wrong, you want to have evidence of how things happened.

— Slow things down. The agents’ urgency doesn’t necessarily mean you have to act fast if you’re not in any immediate danger.

— Request a warrant. Immigration agents will often have administrative warrants, signed by the agents themselves, but these do not require you to let them in. Only a judicial warrant does.

“Just because the form says arrest warrant doesn’t mean it’s a valid arrest warrant. It needs to be signed by a judge,� Jaramillo said.

It will also have the name of a court and a docket number, she said.

The agents, too, need to realize the atmosphere has changed, with immigration enforcement unleashed in Trump’s second term. People are scared and, in some cases, angry. They need to do simple things like identify themselves clearly enough for the residents, and explain why they want entry into your home.

That should be the minimum expectation, especially now when people are seeing video from around the country of masked, armed men seizing people from the streets.

“It felt threatening in a way because of the climate of immigration enforcement,� Gargasz said. “It felt to me like they didn’t really owe you anything.�

The new normal?

We should all expect more of this. The so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which Trump wants to see passed by July 4, includes incredible amounts of spending on immigration enforcement, as an analysis by the Washington Office on Latin America shows.

It would put almost $30 billion toward ICE hiring and operations. It would put $45 billion toward adult and family detention. It would put $4 billion toward hiring more Customs and Border Protection employees and $2 billion toward retention bonuses and signing incentives for CBP officers.

Between $3.3 and $5 billion would go toward the military role in border security. These are incredibly large numbers.

If it passes, those numbers will lead to a further ramp-up in immigration and border enforcement activity. I suspect agents will quickly run out of things to do south of us nearer the border, and as political pressure mounts, be told to find action where they can, as we’re seeing in Los Angeles, where Border Patrol agents have engaged in interior enforcement.

That could be your block or even your home.