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Federal drug agents descended on a smog check business near downtown San Jose on Thursday morning, sparking confusion and panic at the nearby Sacred Heart Community Services over a false alarm that ICE was raiding the nonprofit organization.

Several agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol swooped into the area on South 1st Street to search the small smog-checking business with police dogs.

But many people quickly fled Sacred Heart after hearing rumors that ICE was nearby, a sign that fears of immigration enforcement are at an all-time high, according to community development director Lydia Guel.

“People are really scared,” she said. “We’re calling everybody back and letting them know it was a false alarm.”

The organization launched Santa Clara County’s “Rapid Response Network” after seeing federal agents in the neighborhood Thursday. The network of volunteers reports to the scenes of local ICE enforcement and acts as legal observers, documenting the encounters with cell phones and notebooks.

Less than two years after its inception, the network — a collaborative project created in 2016 by several social justice organizations across the county — has amassed a remarkable 700 volunteers, from longtime organizers to faith leaders to grandparents.

Several rapid responders quickly arrived Thursday, Guel said. “The good news is that the system worked.”

A law enforcement officer on the street said they issued a search warrant at the smog business but did not provide further details. Several people could be seen in handcuffs outside the business, sitting in the shade of a large umbrella as agents searched the business.

Casey Rettig, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, confirmed her agency was in San Jose as part of an “enforcement operation.” She would not provide any more information, saying the case was sealed.