Immigration officers were in the Bluffton area Friday for a “coordinated” operation targeting people who had failed to comply with deportation orders, local police said.A video shared on social media showed over 15 men in handcuffs being walked out of the Myrtle Park Government Center as federal agents stood by. Another clip showed agents loading detainees onto a white bus parked outside.The effort included officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement and Removal Operations, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, BCSO said in an alert Friday afternoon.The sheriff’s office took part in the operation as part of its 287(g) task force agreement with ICE, which forms a partnership between the agencies and allows county deputies to enforce federal immigration law. Sheriff P.J. Tanner signed the contract last summer after significant pushback from some community members.According to a witness, officers with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) assisted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in taking several people into custody on May 29, 2026, at the Myrtle Park Government Center on Bluffton Parkway in Bluffton. (Ana Ramirez)Beaufort County deputies assisted federal agents on Friday “by providing operational support, officer safety coordination and logistical assistance during the operation,” BCSO’s alert read.SLED and BCSO directed further questions to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.A DHS spokesperson did not immediately answer questions sent Friday afternoon about how many people were taken into custody, if the detainees had criminal backgrounds or whether the operation would continue into the weekend.What can you do if ICE comes to your door? Know your rights in SCWitness describes seeing detainees loaded onto busAna Ramirez, a Beaufort County resident who advocates for the immigrant community, began hearing whisperings of ICE activity beginning Friday morning. Community members reported seeing agents in areas near Old Town Bluffton, like the Shady Glen mobile home community and the neighboring post office, she said.Ramirez said she arrived at the government center, where detainees were being taken to later be loaded onto a bus. The three-story building off Bluffton Parkway houses the Bluffton Magistrate courthouse.“I parked my car, walked up to some of the agents and I just said ‘My name is Ana Ramirez, I am a U.S. citizen. Are you ICE?’” Ramirez told The Island Packet.The agents confirmed they were with ICE and told her they were in Bluffton doing “targeted enforcement,” according to Ramirez. She said the agents also told her they could perform “collateral arrests,” which means apprehending other undocumented immigrants who are not the primary target of any given operation.Ramirez said she began recording when she saw men in handcuffs being led out of the building toward the bus.“In my mind, I was like, ‘I can’t know their names, but if I can get their images, then their families can see this and know dad’s not coming home’ ... all the worries that a family can have,” she said.As Ramirez was driving past the bus to leave, she said, she made eye contact with one of the detainees inside. She did the sign of the cross and mouthed in Spanish, “God bless you, and I’m so sorry.”“And then I cried all the way home,” Ramirez said.Ramirez said she has always “highly respected” Sheriff Tanner and local police, but expressed disappointment that BCSO’s participation in ICE efforts “diverts deputies from real crimes to participate in a civil detention matter.”It was standing room only at an hourlong public hearing with Sheriff P.J. Tanner on Tuesday, July 22, at the Bluffton Library to discuss the sheriff’s decision to apply for the federal 287(g) immigration program. (Robert York/Island Packet)Describing the operation’s effect on the Hispanic community in Beaufort County, Ramirez said those arrested were not “the worst of the worst,” the group President Donald Trump has promised to deport during his second term.“We are losing moms, dads, community members, taxpayers, contributing members of society,” Ramirez said.Ramirez said agents told her the detainees from Friday’s operation would either be taken to Charleston or one of two Georgia facilities in Folkston or Stewart County.Federal agents’ presence in and around Beaufort County has left many residents on edge, according to Ramirez, who said she has started carrying her passport card as a precaution despite being a U.S. citizen.“But I know that our community is strong. We are resilient,” Ramirez said. “We are still going to celebrate our families. We are still going to contribute to our communities that we love.”Federal agents were seen walking detainees to the Myrtle Park Government Center, located off Bluffton Parkway, on May 29, 2026, during an U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement operation in the Bluffton area that police said targeted people who had failed to comply with removal orders. (Ana Ramirez)