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Public Safety

Why San Diego police are sometimes on scene during ICE raids

HSI officers execute a criminal search warrant at Buona Forchetta on May 30, 2025. San Diego, Calif.
HSI officers execute a criminal search warrant at Buona Forchetta on May 30, 2025. San Diego, Calif.

San Diego police have been on the scene at multiple immigration enforcement operations in San Diego, raising questions about what role officers play in these federal raids.

Police were called to assist with crowds after the raid on Buona Forchetta in South Park in May. And earlier this month in Linda Vista, SDPD officers were on the scene while an apartment complex was raided by federal agents.

@officialarturo on TikTok recorded a video of the raid and asked a San Diego police officer about the department’s role in the operation.

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“All we’re here for is scene security,” the officer says in the video. “We have not made any immigration arrests, California law does not allow us to do that.”

The officer says California law does allow them to assist when officer safety issues arise, and to make sure the public doesn’t interfere with an investigation.

He’s referencing SB 54, passed in 2017. It prevents local law enforcement from “using money or personnel to investigate, interrogate, detain, detect, or arrest persons for immigration enforcement purposes.”

San Diego Police Lieutenant Travis Easter said the department does not assist with immigration enforcement. But, he said, officers are allowed to help if other law enforcement agencies request assistance, including ICE and DHS.

And he said federal immigration authorities may tell the police department in advance of a raid.

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“If ICE, DHS, they’re doing something in our area, maybe we’ll get a common courtesy,” he said. “But, even then, if we get that, that doesn’t mean that we’re getting involved. And it doesn’t mean that we are going to assist, or going to take part in any way.”

Easter said that in both cases, the department received a call for emergency assistance, and officers were dispatched to respond. In Linda Vista, the call came at noon, and the video was posted at 12:52 p.m..

“And what you saw at that scene, if you’ve seen the video, is really maintaining the peace,” he said. “And I know to say ‘maintain the peace’ sounds contradictory to what happened there. But really, it’s being that line in between to maintain public safety.”

Easter said there are no requirements for what qualifies as an emergency.

“If a person or officer feels they need emergency assistance, our focus is on getting there as quickly and safely as possible to provide the assistance,” he said. ”Everyone has a different barometer for what constitutes an emergency. It is not for us to verify or clarify what constitutes an emergency when someone needs us there as soon as possible.”

San Diego City Council member Sean Elo-Rivera said police can be following state law and still damage their relationship with the community by being present during raids. Especially immigrant communities that are made less safe when they can’t trust local law enforcement, he said.

Erin Tsurumoto Grassi with the advocacy organization Alliance SD agrees the public’s trust is degraded when they see police officers at the scene of immigration enforcement operations.

“The perception to the community is that folks are kidnapping community members,” Grassi said. “They’re seeing them commit human rights violations.”

For example, Grassi said, federal agents used flashbang grenades after the South Park raid, and used excessive force in Linda Vista as well.

“And then we’re witnessing our San Diego Police Department basically be complicit, because they’re doing nothing,” Grassi said. “They’re standing by and they’re doing nothing. So the perception really comes down to, it looks like they are providing security for kidnappers.”

That’s why Elo-Rivera wants the police department to establish clear parameters for when and how to respond during federal raids.

Elo-Rivera also said that SDPD should request identification from any federal agents attempting to detain someone.

“We definitely … have a responsibility as a city to ensure that it’s not just random people who are detaining San Diegans,” he said.

He’s also asked the San Diego police chief to help families and friends locate people who are “detained or disappeared” by federal agents.

Elo-Rivera also plans to introduce an ordinance that will do the following:

  • Establish “clear parameters” for when federal or out of state law enforcement can enter non-public spaces.
  • Codify that the city will not request or share information about immigration status, sexual orientation, gender identity, reproductive health history, or religious affiliation; anything that could be “putting a target on someone’s back” without a judicial warrant or court order.
  • Ensure the city is doing what it can to inform residents of their rights and how to assert those rights.

“We have to be humble in acknowledging our limitations in our ability to control federal action. And that’s not an excuse for us not to do something and do what we can,” Elo-Rivera said. “We have rights, our residents have rights, our visitors have rights, and we need to do everything we can to give people firm ground to assert those rights. And we certainly cannot be complicit in allowing for abuses of power, for violations of rights, and, quite frankly, for fascism, to be openly invited into this city.”

KPBS has created a public safety coverage policy to guide decisions on what stories we prioritize, as well as whose narratives we need to include to tell complete stories that best serve our audiences. This policy was shaped through months of training with the Poynter Institute and feedback from the community. You can read the full policy here.