ICE's Secret 45-Day California Sweep Starts in San Diego

ICE's Secret 45-Day California Sweep Starts in San Diego

A covert operation begins in San Diego

A sweeping immigration enforcement operation that the Trump administration never announced publicly is already underway in California. The Washington Examiner first reported that ICE officers were told to "go after anybody," including people with no criminal history, under an internal program called Operation Safe California. The campaign began in the San Diego area and is expected to last at least 45 days. The Department of Homeland Security would neither confirm nor deny it, saying only that it cannot discuss law enforcement operations for the safety of its employees.

On the ground, the surge is unmistakable

San Diego residents noticed the change before the story broke. Arturo Gonzalez, a community activist who monitors ICE activity from his car, described the past week and a half as "a complete, big, immense surge — the biggest surge I have ever seen since I started doing this work." On Monday morning in Mira Mesa, a man was apparently apprehended on his way to work; his family sent desperate messages looking for him and his truck. Mea Dominguez of the City Heights Defense Committee said her group now takes calls from across the city "every 10 to 15 minutes," from organizers who say the agents are unfamiliar, driving out-of-state plates. "These are all new people," she said.

Agents swap uniforms for safety vests

Organizers report a change in tactics. Gonzalez said agents have been seen wearing orange safety vests at construction sites to blend in and driving vehicles designed to look less obvious. Videos posted to social media show an arrest in a home improvement store parking lot off Imperial Avenue, an encounter at a gas station off El Cajon Boulevard, and agents near a construction site in North Park. Defense groups are advising vulnerable people to carry "red cards" asserting their right to remain silent, decline to answer questions, withhold documents and request an attorney.

The official line stresses criminals; sources tell a different story

A DHS spokesperson pointed to recent arrests in California of a Jamaican man convicted of drug trafficking and homicide, a Mexican man convicted of homicide and burglary, and a South Korean man convicted of homicide — the familiar public script of targeting serious offenders. But the source who described Operation Safe California to the Examiner offered a blunter internal rationale: "Management wants numbers," with officers told they "can pick up anybody." CNN separately reported that on October 6, ICE leadership told agents nationwide to add 1,000 arrests a day and return to a 3,000-a-day target, roughly 19,000 a week; DHS insisted to CNN there are "NO quotas."

The route runs north toward San Francisco

Sources told the Examiner that officers in San Diego, reinforced by staff sent down from ICE's Los Angeles and San Francisco offices, will work their way north through Los Angeles and reach San Francisco by November. The operation reportedly relies on fewer federal officers than a two-month enforcement campaign in Minnesota last winter, and ICE reportedly views San Francisco as the most unfriendly of its three target regions. In Los Angeles, dozens have already been arrested this week, from Pacoima to Bellflower and from East LA to the Fashion District, according to LA Public Press.

Newsom calls it a 'campaign of fear'

Governor Gavin Newsom fired back on X: "Donald Trump is using fear and panic as a weapon — putting families at risk, undermining our economy, and terrorizing communities. No President is above the Constitution." He added: "Donald, your campaign of fear will FAIL." Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said indiscriminate raids weeks before an election are not about public safety but fear. City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, who represents City Heights, captured the mood among parents: "We are sending kids to school in San Diego right now, and they do not know on a day-to-day basis whether or not their parents will be there."

Sanctuary limits push enforcement into the streets

California's California Values Act (SB 54) bars local and state police from helping ICE carry out federal immigration law. Federal officials have spent roughly two years treating that restriction as the justification for street arrests, courthouse arrests and workplace operations instead of relying on county jails. In September, hundreds rallied in City Heights after two parents were arrested near John Marshall Elementary School. The San Diego Community College District said ICE agents arrested a student on a public street cutting through its urban campus and chased another up the steps of a Humanities building; a DHS spokesperson insisted "ICE does not target schools."

A study provides the grim backdrop

That same week, UCLA and UC Berkeley School of Law researchers released a study finding nearly 15,000 people arrested by ICE across the seven counties of the Los Angeles field office area between January 2025 and August 2026 were ultimately deported. At the June 2025 peak, arrests of people with no criminal conviction ran more than 3,400 percent above 2024 levels, and arrests of those with no final removal order nearly 1,400 percent higher — neither group previously a priority. Researchers said arrests rose again starting in June 2026, to just over half the prior year's peak.

What comes next in a 45-day countdown

With the midterms on November 3 and a 45-day clock already running, the operation puts federal enforcement on a collision course with California's politics and its largest immigrant communities. Immigrant defense networks in Los Angeles and San Francisco are preparing as the surge moves north, training volunteers and distributing rights cards. For families in San Diego's City Heights and Mira Mesa, the question is no longer abstract: whether today is the day someone gets picked up on the way to work.