What is behind the rise in immigration arrests on San Diego military bases?

S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman. On today's show , we'll talk with KPBS border reporter Gustavo Solis about his recent reporting on why dozens of people have been detained by Ice at San Diego military bases. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. So before the Trump administration , immigration arrests on military bases were rare. But in just the past year , dozens of immigrants have been arrested on San Diego military bases. Here's that reporting from KPBS investigative border reporter Gustavo Solis.

S2: As an immigration lawyer , Stephanie Alcala has learned not to be surprised by the lengths that Ice and other federal agents will go to in arresting her clients. But she'll never forget about a case from last Thanksgiving. The father of a marine had been detained at Camp Pendleton.

S3: And he was dropping off his son after they had Thanksgiving dinner and his son was in the military. He went to the military base to go drop off his son. And at that point he was apprehended.

S2: Another client was a woman simply looking for a cup of coffee.

S3: She was dropping off her daughter. She dropped her off , went to get coffee , coffee shop was closed. She put in the GPS that she wanted to go to another coffee shop , and it gave her the directions. And she drove as the GPS guided her onto a military base.

S2: Immigration arrests at military bases were extremely rare prior to the current Trump administration , but last year , Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton launched a new security initiative with Ice and Customs and Border Protection. The aim was to deter unauthorized access to the military base by foreign nationals , and since then , dozens of immigrants have been arrested in San Diego's military bases and held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center. Jose Diaz is a Lyft driver who was arrested in March while trying to pick someone up at Camp Pendleton. He was detained for six weeks.

S4: Ahora de las aqui vas con las cadenas Cuevas en la otra. Nadira y eso a todo mundo la perfecta.

S2: Diaz remembers the humiliation he felt when federal agents put cuffs around his wrists , ankles and waist. He's been in the US for four years , has a valid work permit , works three jobs , pays taxes and says that he has never gotten in trouble with the law.

S4: Es Como busca mas para entonces eso yo la veo la veo mal porque nosotros en este pais. No estamos haciendo nada mas lo mas Q trabajar.

S2: Diaz supports deporting immigrants who break the law and even the ones who accept government welfare without working for it. But he says it is deeply unfair to use criminal immigrants as justification to detain people who follow the rules.

S4: Tipo de esas personas es nosotros a Los Q si queremos trabajar aqui.

S2: When Ice agents arrested Diaz at Camp Pendleton , he met two DoorDash delivery drivers who had also been arrested earlier that day. In fact , delivery and rideshare drivers have been arrested at military bases so often that they are now warning each other to stay away. They share their stories on WhatsApp and in Facebook groups. Valentina is an immigrant driver and organizer. He asked KPBS not to reveal his full identity due to his lack of legal status.

S5: Tenemos siempre riesgo. See.

S2: He encourages all immigrant drivers to refuse trips into military bases , tells them just to cancel the rides , even if that means making less money.

S5: Nuestros servicio pues tenemos cancel lados.

S2: And that loss of income is significant. On weekends , driving sailors and marines back from bars to their bases can be very lucrative by not accepting those rides. Valentine says his weekend earnings have dropped between 10 and 15%. A Camp Pendleton spokesperson deferred all questions to Ice. A spokesperson for Ice declined to comment on individual cases , but confirmed that agents are helping verify identification at entry points in military bases. Jose Diaz no longer drives for Lyft or Uber. He now questions whether it's even possible for immigrants to have a safe and stable future here.

S4: Una persona recta pies cuando two a portas al pais y el pais. Te trata Como delinquent.

S2: In detention , he struggled to understand why he was even there , and remembers asking his lawyer , Stephanie Alcala , why.

S3: I don't have an answer and I can't answer that. And it's it's frustrating because I can see the anguish in my client's eyes and I just can't. There's nothing I can do about it.

S2: She does not see this as a security issue. None of Carla's clients have a criminal record. Her theory is that the Trump administration is doing this because they know they can get away with it.

S3: The detention primarily was because they could.

S2: She is also telling all of her clients to avoid San Diego's military bases.

S1: And that was KPBS investigative border reporter Gustavo Solis , who's joining me here in studio. Gustavo , welcome.

S2: Hello , Jane.

S1: So how did you first come across this story?

S2: Word of mouth. Yeah , it was kind of becoming an open secret. I first heard about it late last year from immigration lawyers who I had talked to. There were rumors about it happening , but it took a while to track down. Driver is willing to talk about this.

S1: Not bad. In the story we just heard , you mentioned this joint initiative between Camp Pendleton Ice and CPB. Tell us more about the details of that initiative.

S2: There aren't many details. We found a press release that went out last year , last May , and all it said was kind of what we reported , right? It was a joint initiative. Safety to make sure foreign nationals don't get into military bases. It was framed as a proof of concept limited to Camp Pendleton , but has since spread to other military facilities in San Diego County.

S1: So tell us more about than you know , how the military is collaborating with federal immigration enforcement. I mean , what does that look like?

S2: In fact , it varies slightly based on case. I read a lot of lawsuits that kind of document how this happens , but more often than not. Uh , anyone in San Diego who's been to a military base. You're kind of familiar with the process , right? There's an entry point , a gate , and they always check your ID. I don't know what guidance those people have when it comes to these cases , but by and large , these folks are showing their ID. They have driver's license. Um. Uh , Diaz , who I talked to , he even showed him his valid work permit to get into the base. And I don't know what they're looking for , but they're flagging something. So these people who are not U.S. citizens or residents , they get kind of sent to secondary. And the guards at the military base to say , oh , hold on , I need to call somebody else. And then that somebody else is Ice or Border Patrol , who then take them in.

S1: And as we heard , you spoke with rideshare and delivery drivers who are left particularly vulnerable to these arrests. What else did they tell you about their experiences?

S2: Well , one , they had no idea this was happening right? Especially early on when it was beginning to happen. Because these drivers are used to going to military bases all the time , and they haven't had problems before. Now some bases , um , they'll take your ID and you go in. When you leave , you can get your ID back. Others just scan it. Coronado. They don't let you in , but they have a little parking lot outside where you can kind of meet the folks you're working with. So every base kind of handles it differently. But generally speaking , they all let you work in there. And there was a sudden shift that , like I said before , wasn't really announced. So a lot of people were caught off guard. They told me , like , if I had known this was a risk , I would not have accepted that ride. Wow.

S1: Wow. Do we know how many people have been arrested on military bases since the start of this second Trump term?

S2: We do not. We asked both the military , the Department of Defense and Ice , and neither of us would tell us how many people have been detained. Um , we got a 44 number. That's only of the folks who file these federal lawsuits. Writ of habeas corpus petitions to get out. And in that it's basically somebody in immigration court in immigration detention telling the federal government , hey , this is an unlawful detention. I'm being detained indefinitely. Um , and that is helpful for reporting purpose because we have a paper trail. So with the help of a nonprofit , a habeas docket , they've been tracking these cases all over the country. They were able to identify 44 in California , Southern District , which is the federal court here in San Diego. But that's obviously an undercount , right? That's 44 cases of just the folks who were detained in military bases were able to secure a lawyer and file these federal lawsuits. And that's how we know we don't know how many were detained and don't have these federal lawsuits.

S1: That's absolutely horrifying when you think about it. Yeah.

S2: Yeah , we have no idea. Right.

S1: Right. And the reason for their detention. Ambiguous?

S2: Ambiguous? Yeah , they were in a base. They're not supposed to be there. I mean , the the cases , if you read through them and the story kind of captured it , right? Just how random and arbitrary they can seem , right? A father who dropped off his marine son after Thanksgiving dinner. This woman who followed GPS directions in the court documents. There's actually there's a guy who was looking for a Jersey Mike's sandwich shop ended up in a base. We had we covered a story about a surfer who wandered onto Camp Pendleton. Another lawyer early on last year told me about the fiancée of an active duty service member. They wanted a fun date night. They went to the Miramar Air Show. She was detained. So it it's just these kind of seemingly innocent interactions that lead to detention , which , I mean , the lawyer featured in that story , she said she has five cases. None of these five people have criminal records. A federal judge ordered their release when asked , said. Reviewed the case. And , you know , for that to happen , the judge needs to to determine that they're not a flight risk , they're not a public safety risk. They should have a hearing. So the idea that this is a public safety initiative just doesn't really match with the facts on the ground.

S1: And what are people saying they're experiencing when in detention. Mhm.

S2: Mhm. Well that we do know about it unfortunately because people have been detained here overcrowded conditions. Uh not the best food. Uh , a lot of you know , at night is particularly harmful. Not harmful , but but emotional. You just hear grown men and women crying themselves to sleep at night because they've they've given up hope of being there. Um , immigration detention is technically civil detention is not meant to be punitive , but that's how it's being used. These people that I talked to. I've been in there. They they describe it as being in jail. Your movement is limited. You have limited access to the outside , to communications , to outdoors. They tell you where and when to eat. It feels like a criminal detention setting. To them.

S1: It's so important to to to say that and mention that and really speak to what this experience is. And so again , this is more like a jail. Yeah.

S2: Yeah. And it shouldn't be immigration. The entire structure , the legal structure of immigration court is a civil adjudication procedure. It's deportation is a civil thing. It's not a criminal thing. And the way these detention centers were thought of conceived , they were a place where you detain somebody until like to , to basically prepare for their deportation. Right. So you detain them temporarily until we can arrange the travel documents , or they can finish the court process of going through detention. But what we're seeing now here in San Diego , there are people who have been detained seven , eight , nine months to a year with no efforts being made to realize that deportation. So that's not what this system was created for. Hmm.

S1: Hmm. As you mentioned , you know , this was rare before the Trump administration. Is there any is like a history even of the military working with CPB and Ice like this?

S2: Not like this. But there is a history of the military working with , uh , with immigration enforcement agencies , especially the Trump administration. Right. Remember the first few months there were , um , deployments along the border? Right. That was Military National Guard coming through the border. And they're limited in what they can do because of laws that prevent the military from doing law enforcement work , but they could assist in other ways. The concertina wire all over the border. They were doing that thing , um , just patrolling , like , looking for people without putting hands on them. That's something the military was doing that , um , freed up space and personnel for Border Patrol to do other things. So there is a history of that happening. I think something that didn't make the story that I thought was interesting was , I think part of the reason it's so jarring here in San Diego is because we have the California sanctuary laws , and a lot of what those sanctuary laws do is they say if you get stopped by a local police , they're not going to ask for your status. They're not going to call Ice. They're limited in their cooperation to enforcing federal immigration laws. So you're thinking , oh , I'm in California. I can't get in trouble for immigration by a local cop. But then you go into a military facilities , and those are kind of local guards at the gates , and those are resulting in immigration consequences. And obviously they're military police. They're federal. They're not local , but it's sort of the one area in California where the sanctuary laws don't really protect us the way they would if we got stopped by a sheriff , deputy or SPD officer.

S1: Something to to think about there. What are you covering or looking at next?

S2: A couple other things. I mean , we're trying to get more data on this , seeing how widespread it is. Um , but the lack of transparency is difficult , right? We don't even know how often this is happening. A couple of questions I had that just weren't unanswered. Is the military base giving any guidance to people who live there? Right. Because because presumably , you know , enlisted service members , folks who live in military bases , do they know that if they call Uber , they could potentially be putting someone in danger? Do they know that if they call DoorDash , their driver could be detained and deported because of that call? Are the companies doing anything? Are Uber or Lyft or DoorDash , warning their drivers about this kind of activity. I haven't found that they are like the story mentions. They're self-organizing , kind of self-policing. Um , but I don't know if that's enough right now. So there's a lack of support for the immigrant communities. Hmm.

S1: Hmm. Something will definitely keep in mind and continue to watch out for your reporting on. I've been speaking with KPBS investigative board of reporter Gustavo Solis. To read this full story. You can go on kpbs.org. Gustavo , thank you as always. Yeah.

S2: Yeah. Thank you Dave.

S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.