Compared to the high-profile surges of President Donald Trump's deportation forces in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis, it might not seem like much is happening in San Diego.
However, while Trump's crackdown isn't as draconian here as in those cities, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested at least 5,000 people in the San Diego region last year, according to federal data obtained by the Deportation Data Project.
This equates to an average of roughly 20 people arrested each day in San Diego and Imperial counties. And the total tally for 2025 is certain to be significantly higher because the arrest numbers are only updated through mid October.
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KPBS spent time recently with groups of volunteers who document ICE activity on the streets and at the downtown federal courthouse. They say the impact is real and being felt by many in the community.
Volunteers organize community patrols in immigrant neighborhoods, accompany people to immigration court, set up hotlines where residents can report ICE sightings and upload videos of any arrests they witness on social media.
“It’s been wild,” said Benjamin Prado, an organizer with Union del Bario, one of the groups organizing community patrols.
“Granted, we haven’t seen the intensified type of roving patrols that are out in Los Angeles, Chicago or Minnesota. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not happening here.”
Union del Barrio organizes multiple daily patrols in San Diego County. One day last week, volunteers drove around Oceanside, Escondido, Vista and Barrio Logan looking for any signs of ICE enforcement.
Some patrols are in direct response to community concerns. Individuals will request Union de Barrio patrols if they feel too afraid to leave their homes. Parents will ask for morning patrols around certain schools during drop off time, organizers said.
KPBS rode with Prado in Barrio Logan, a working-class immigrant neighborhood that has been the target of sporadic ICE enforcement. He did not see any ICE activity that day.
“It’s quiet,” Prado said. “Quiet is good.”
Most of the morning patrols end without an ICE sighting, which Prado said is a reflection of how federal immigration enforcement is being handled in San Diego.
There were two workplace raids last spring — one at an industrial paint shop outside of El Cajon and another in an Italian restaurant in South Park
However, the norm in San Diego has been quiet but constant enforcement. ICE has made arrests on military bases, near schools, in jails and outside courtrooms and during green card interviews.
And after nearly a year, this approach has produced thousands of arrests.
Courthouse arrests
Separate organizations — Detention Resistance and FAITH (Faithful Accompaniment In Trust & Hope) — have focused on documenting immigration enforcement at San Diego’s downtown federal courthouse.
In May, activists from Detention Resistance were among the first people to post videos of ICE agents arresting immigrants in the hallway as they walked out of their court hearings.
Their efforts have clearly rattled court officials. By the end of the year, immigration court staff posted signs telling people not to record in the hallway. Court observers were also told not to loiter and some were barred from entering immigration courtrooms that were previously more open to the public.
“The general public doesn’t realize how sweeping this immigration enforcement has been,” said Rev. Paige Blair-Hubert, a volunteer with FAITH.
Volunteers told KPBS that they feel stressed, tired, and intimidated. But also fulfilled.
The stress comes from the emotional toll of seeing immigration arrests — particularly those that happen in front of children.
“It lives with me, that baby crying as dad was pushing the baby down the hall and the woman crying as she was led away [by ICE agents],” said Rev. Kathleen Owens, another volunteer with FAITH describing a courthouse arrest last year.
“How do you do that to a family?” she added.
The intimidation comes from increasingly aggressive rhetoric from the White House. Especially after federal agents killed Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month.
White House officials, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, described them as “domestic terrorists.”
“I’m not going to tell you we’re not scared because, obviously, we are scared,” said Rommel Diaz, another organizer with Union del Bario. “But we will not let this fear paralyze us.”
Diaz moved to the United States from Chile more than 40 years ago — he said to escape the authoritarian rule of the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Authoritarian regimes often criminalize vocal opposition groups, Diaz said. He is concerned the White House rhetoric is a sign of a similar approach.
“They are criminalizing immigrants and then use that criminalization to justify repression,” he said.
