Immigration arrests quietly surge by 1,500% in San Diego: ‘I feel the temperature rising’
Printer-friendly versionBy Wendy Fry and Natasha Uzcategui-Liggett, CalMatters This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Photo: members of Unión del Barrio gather by flashlight in the predawn hours before patrolling the Linda Vista neighborhood in San Diego on Jan. 13, 2026. The group by alerts residents to the presence of ICE agents in the community. Photo by John Gastaldo for CalMatters January 29, 2026 (San Diego) – While the Trump administration’s immigration blitz hit Midwestern cities like Chicago and Minneapolis, a quieter escalation unfolded in San Diego late last year with agents making thousands of arrests in and around the city. Government data analyzed by CalMatters show nearly a 1500% increase in arrests for May to October compared to the same time period a year earlier. The arrests occurred in San Diego and Imperial counties, a region the federal government refers to as its San Diego area of responsibility. By September, the number of arrests recorded in the two counties surpassed immigration arrests in the Los Angeles territory, a much larger region that the Trump administration targeted for a headline-grabbing crackdown that summer. In September and October, federal immigration officers arrested more than twice as many people in the San Diego region than they did in all of 2024, according to government data. “I feel the temperature rising,” said Patrick Corrigan, a volunteer who monitors U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity at the federal courthouse in San Diego. As in other blue cities across the nation, activists are worried San Diego could be next on President Donald Trump’s list for a major military-style immigration operation. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson would not comment about whether more high-profile operations were planned for the San Diego area. David Kim, a Border Patrol spokesman, said the agency cannot confirm future operations. In December, White House “border czar” Tom Homan visited the San Diego border with U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott. “As we bring 10,000 more agents on…you haven’t seen anything yet,” warned Homan. “Wait ’til next year.” He added that so-called sanctuary cities that have official policies that limit law enforcement cooperation with federal officers, such as San Diego and Chula Vista, would see more non-criminal arrests because agents would be forced into the community. “If you wanna be a sanctuary city, you’re gonna get exactly what you don’t want. More agents in the community and more non-criminals arrested,” he said. Advocacy groups and immigrants have noticed the skyrocketing arrests. In San Diego, federal immigration agents have clashed with protesters while arresting immigrants in the hallways of downtown courtrooms. Agents also swept Home Depot parking lots in Encinitas, National City and San Marcos in the past year and made arrests near public schools. In May, ICE agents stormed Buona Forchetta, a small neighborhood restaurant in the upscale South Park neighborhood of San Diego. But San Diego hasn’t felt like a city under siege — yet. Gregory Bovino, the chief patrol agent of the El Centro Sector in California who made headlines around the nation as the Border Patrol’s commander at large, has not shown up in San Diego. Even without his presence and the attention that follows, arrests here have been surging. Agents arrested more than 4,500 people between May and October of 2025 compared to less than 300 in the same period of the previous year, the data shows. Immigration arrests in San Diego and Imperial counties increased drastically in 2025 Federal immigration officers arrested about 4,500 people for civil violations of immigration law between May and October of last year in the San Diego area, a 1500% increase compared to the same period in 2024 where nearly 300 such arrests occurred. By September 2025, arrests surpassed those in the Los Angeles area, where ICE activity surged this past summer. Note: ICE divides the country into areas of responsibility. The San Diego area of responsibility includes San Diego and Imperial counties whereas the Los Angeles area of responsibility includes Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Data processed to remove likely duplicates and cases where area of arrest was uncertain. The amount shows the rolling average of daily arrests by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations for the 7-day period ending that day. The most recent arrest data ends on October 15, 2025. Chart: Natasha Uzcátegui-Liggett, CalMatters. Source: CalMatters analysis of data from the Deportation Data Project Many arrests are occurring at immigration check-ins and courthouses. Some critics call that tactic illegal because they say it violates people’s due process rights to legalize their status. They say it serves as a deportation trap: if you don’t show up, you will probably be ordered deported; if you do, you may be arrested. “They’re just putting numbers on the board,” said Andrea Guerrero, the executive director of Alliance San Diego, a community human rights organization that works to hold federal law enforcement accountable, including Border Patrol. “And they’re doing so in a way that is not just irresponsible, but is inhumane. There is no doubt that public trust is eroding in real time in the institutions of our government and that has an impact on the resiliency of our democracy,” she added. San Diego arrest data shows immigration agents are no longer focusing on people with criminal records. Only 25% of people arrested between May and mid-October had criminal convictions, compared to over 60% in the same months of the final year of Joe Biden’s presidency. The data was provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to a public records request by the Deportation Data Project, a group of academic researchers and attorneys, and analyzed by CalMatters. This data set only includes administrative arrests: when ICE agents arrest an individual for a civil violation of immigration laws, such as being in the U.S. without permission from the government. ICE can also make criminal arrests, but those figures do not appear to be included in this data set, according to researchers. Courthouse arrests Earlier this month, a woman from