Chula Vista is about to release a first-of-its-kind report that could shed new light on how federal immigration agents are conducting themselves in San Diego County’s second-largest city.
On Monday, Deputy Mayor Cesar Fernandez held a ceremonial signing of the city’s so-called “Safe Neighbor” ordinance. The new law requires city officials to disclose any contact between federal immigration agents and Chula Vista police.
Under the ordinance, Chula Vista’s City Manager will provide written reports to the City Council on those encounters at least twice a year. The city’s police chief will also have to issue public incident reports every time officers respond to calls from immigration agents.
Council member Carolina Chavez said the measure was a direct response to aggressive U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. She pointed to agents’ raid in San Diego’s South Park neighborhood last year, when agents arrested several workers and used flashbang grenades to clear a crowd of protesters.
“This is not hypothetical,” Chavez said. “It leaves a community with trauma that will follow them for the rest of their lives.”
Fernandez said the Council wanted to be more transparent about encounters between officers and federal agents. He said the city would publish their first report on ICE activity by the end of June.
“Therein lies the scary part,” he said. “I don’t have a clear idea of what we’re going to see.”
Spike in Chula Vista ICE arrests
ICE arrested 52 people in Chula Vista last year following President Donald Trump’s return to office, according to the Deportation Data Project. 60% of those people had no convictions or criminal charges.
That’s up from previous years, the data show. In 2024, ICE arrested just nine people in Chula Vista, 22% of them with no criminal record.
In 2023, ICE arrested 11 people, and all but one had criminal records.
Fernandez and Chavez, both Democrats, began working on the ordinance last fall after armed ICE agents arrested a parent outside an East Chula Vista elementary school.
The Council’s Democratic majority voted to approve the ordinance early last month.
In addition to the reporting requirements, the ordinance also limits city staff and contractors from sharing information about residents’ legal status and bars city officials from taking part in immigration-related task forces.
It clarifies that federal immigration agents cannot access nonpublic city facilities without a judicial warrant or a court order.
At that March meeting, Sweetwater Education Association President Lucy Ugarte thanked the Council for their work on the ordinance.
“Our students are tired of being scared,” Ugarte said. “This ordinance shows them that you are listening, that you care, and that you want to keep them and their families and our communities safe from harm.”
Mayor won’t support ordinance
One notable absence from Monday’s ceremony was Chula Vista Mayor John McCann.
McCann, the Council’s lone Republican, has largely avoided any discussions related to federal immigration enforcement and other actions by the Trump administration, citing his service as a Naval reservist.
During a bid for county supervisor last year, McCann said local officials should be supporting citizens over noncitizens. He opposed the county’s stronger sanctuary laws and Immigrant Legal Defense Program.
McCann abstained from several votes related to the new ordinance.
“He declined to stand up in this moment for the many residents in our city who are living with fear and uncertainty,” Fernandez said on Monday. “That matters, and people deserve to hear that clearly.”
In a text to KPBS Monday, McCann reiterated his argument that he is “unable to participate in an item that would specifically inhibit or oppose federal law” due to his military service.
“Therefore I am required to recuse myself and not sign the political statement that already follows the 2018 SB 54,” the mayor wrote, referring to the California Values Act.
McCann is currently running for reelection in the June primary.
Chavez is also up for reelection this year.
Drop in school attendance
On Monday, Fernandez was flanked by Chula Vista Elementary School District trustee Francisco Tamayo, a Democrat who is currently running against McCann for mayor.
Tamayo described a concerning trend. He said districts across the South Bay saw attendance fall last year following high-profile immigration-related arrests — including the arrest outside Camarena Elementary School.
“Parents are afraid to bring their kids, especially if their immigration status is uncertain,” he said.
According to the trustee, Camarena Elementary School saw a 5% to 8% drop in attendance in the week after the arrest. Elsewhere in the district, schools saw attendance fall between 3% to 5%.
Tamayo attributes those declines to federal immigration actions because of the timing — and because of the number of phone calls he said the district has received from concerned parents.
He said school districts across the South Bay have observed similar declines.
Last year, researchers at UC Riverside found that forced separation from caregivers, or the threat of it, can have lasting consequences for children in immigrant and mixed-status families.
Tamayo said the Chula Vista Elementary School District has created a special response team who will interface with federal agents and try to determine if they are following the correct protocols.
“All of this is to make sure that families feel safe, that we're doing everything in our power to protect the kids,” he said.
