Federal immigration agents arrested a parent outside Camarena Elementary School in East Chula Vista on Wednesday morning as students arrived for school, according to the district superintendent and multiple city officials.
In a statement Wednesday, Chula Vista Elementary School District officials said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had made the arrest. They said the arrest did not take place on school grounds and said they had strong protocols in place to prevent “unauthorized access” to their schools.
“This includes limiting access to law enforcement officials, who are not permitted to interact with students unless there is an immediate threat to school safety, such as an active emergency or a signed warrant by a judge,” wrote Chula Vista Elementary Superintendent Eduardo Reyes in an email to district families and staff.
City Council member Michael Inzunza said he feared that immigration agents might have targeted the parent solely because they did not have legal status to be in the U.S. — although he clarified that he did not yet know why they had been arrested.
“If somebody is only picked up because of their undocumented status, that is shameful and disgusting,” he told KPBS Wednesday afternoon. “To do that and create a spectacle in front of children, and traumatizing them in the school.”
Inzunza said two children were in the car at the time of the arrest.
He shared a text from a police department official, which said the parent was arrested one block away from the school. The text said the father of the two children was called to pick them up.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
As President Donald Trump presses forward with his mass deportation campaign, ICE faces growing pressure to meet arrest quotas. In San Diego, KPBS reported, the agency has increasingly targeted people who have not been convicted of any violent crimes but are suspected of being in the country without legal status.
Inzunza emphasized that Chula Vista police do not work with immigration enforcement agencies.
“The city of Chula Vista — all its residents, documented or otherwise — should always be reassured that we don't involve ourselves in ICE raids,” he said.
City Council member Cesar Fernandez said this was only the third immigration enforcement action he knows of that has taken place in the county’s second-largest city since Trump took office.
He said he planned to meet with the leaders of both Chula Vista Elementary School District and Sweetwater Union High School District to discuss their protocols.
“I want to set up a meeting, talk about their protocols, and ask if they feel that the city can help in any way,” Fernandez said.
In his email, Reyes recommended that parents create a plan that would allow the district to care for their children in case they are “unable to pick them up or drop them off due to unforeseen circumstances.”
“We want to reassure you that our schools remain safe spaces for all students,” he wrote.
