Chula Vista residents will be getting more information about how their police officers interact with federal immigration officials after the City Council voted Tuesday to develop a new disclosure process.
In a 4-0 vote, council members in San Diego County’s second-largest city directed the city attorney to develop clear procedures for how police should respond to agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“Sometimes we don't even know that there's ICE activity happening in the city,” said Councilmember Cesar Fernandez, who led development of the resolution. “But if the department were to learn of it, they need to report it in a timely fashion.”
Mayor John McCann, the lone Republican on the city’s five-member council, abstained. McCann claimed he was unable to “oppose or potentially oppose federal law” as a naval reserve officer.
Tuesday’s resolution makes Chula Vista the latest city in San Diego County to establish new protections for immigrants amid the Trump administration’s aggressive mass deportation campaign. Others include San Diego, Oceanside and Vista.
Chula Vista has been the site of at least one high-profile, immigration-related arrest this year. In August, ICE agents arrested a parent from South Korea outside an East Chula Vista elementary school. The parent’s children were in the backseat of the car.
Elected officials sharply criticized the actions of armed federal agents, who made the arrest during morning dropoff. Councilmember Michael Inzunza said the display of force was too close to the school and unnecessary for apprehending someone who does not appear to have been charged with or convicted of a crime.
“If this was just an expired visa or a warrant, why make such a traumatic event?” Inzunza told KPBS in August.
A disclosure process could give residents more clarity on when and where federal immigration agents are launching enforcement actions.
In an interview with KPBS, Fernandez said he envisioned Chula Vista police publishing a notice on their public data portal every time they were contacted by ICE or other federal immigration agencies.
ICE has arrested at least 35 people in Chula Vista this year, according to federal data obtained by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by KPBS. More than half of them, 51%, had not been charged or convicted of a crime.
Those numbers are up from previous years amid ICE’s acceleration of arrests in San Diego and Imperial County. Last year, ICE arrested just nine people in Chula Vista, and six of them had been convicted of crimes. In 2023, ICE arrested 4 people — all of them convicted of crimes, the data show.
Elsewhere in California, city officials have been divided over whether to tell residents when federal immigration agents are in town.
This summer, the Orange County city of Santa Ana considered its own alert policy requiring police to alert residents of ICE activity within 48 hours of receiving a notification. But they backed off the idea after U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said his office could prosecute city officials over the policy.
Chula Vista’s disclosure policy is still under development, but Fernandez said his hope is to provide clarity for both police officers and residents.
“It provides that transparency for the public and ultimately creates more trust for residents in our city,” he said.
Tuesday’s resolution also included other restrictions on immigration enforcement.
For example, it tasks city staff with reworking the language of city agreements to bar future contractors from sharing personal data in “cooperation with discriminatory enforcement actions.”
Council members also asked city staff to create a digital “Know Your Rights” campaign and explore partnering with immigration law groups to offer residents legal services.
While similar resolutions have drawn large crowds and sparked heated deliberation in other cities, Chula Vista City hall was relatively quiet Tuesday night.
Longtime human rights advocate Pedro Rios sent a written notice of support. Two commenters spoke in opposition of the resolution, including newly appointed city Housing and Homelessness Commissioner Bogdan Matuszynski.
“This is virtue-signalling to the most I have ever seen,” said Matuszynski “If you vote yes on this, you are actually dividing us more.”
Councilmember Jose Preciado pushed back on Matuszynski’s argument. He said families are being “attacked” under President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
“I use that language very clearly,” Preciado said. “Immigration law is a civil matter. It should be dealt with in a civil way. But it is not that.”
