About a month after the first large-scale immigration arrest operation in San Diego under the Trump administration rounded up 115 people, officers took another 44 into custody in a second week-long enforcement effort that ended Friday.

In the days leading up to the operation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers located nine other people who would’ve been targeted by the action, bringing the total number of announced arrests to 53. The March operation was directed by national headquarters — April’s effort was a locally directed “cross check operation” and a little smaller in scope, according to ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack.

“The scheduling details pertaining to all of ERO’s enforcement operations, including local cross check operations, are law enforcement sensitive,” Mack said when asked about the timing of the two operations.

Of the 53 people arrested, nine had pending criminal charges, 11 had criminal convictions and 10 had previously been removed from the U.S. The agency declined to clarify how many of the remaining 23 arrests were collateral, meaning that they were not targets of the operation but encountered in the process of arresting others.


A news release about the operation called out S.B. 54, a bill that went into effect in January that restricted local law enforcement’s interaction with federal immigration officers, as the reason some of those arrested were targeted.

“While we continue to face significant obstacles in dealing with so-called ‘sanctuary city’ policies, which hinder cooperation with local law enforcement, we will continue our relentless pursuit of safeguarding communities, diligently enforcing the U.S. immigration laws,” said Gregory Archambeault, field office director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations in San Diego.

The news release about the operation said that offenses of those arrested who had criminal histories included vandalism, hit and run, larceny, DUI and various drug offenses.

The release detailed four cases of Mexican men who were arrested.


One had a conviction for possession for sale of heroin and was previously deported. After his April arrest by ICE, he was turned over to the U.S. Marshals Service for prosecution for illegal reentry.

The other three had pending DUI charges, and two of them were released from county jail instead of being turned over to ICE, according to the release.

One of those three men also had a pending contempt of court charge, and another had a pending possession of a controlled substance charge. Both are in ICE custody waiting to see immigration judges.

The third man had previously been deported from the U.S. and was taken back to Mexico on the same day that he was arrested under that prior removal order.


ICE officers arrested people across the county in Santee, Vista, Encinitas, Chula Vista, Escondido, Oceanside, San Diego and Imperial Beach. Those arrested included people from Mexico and Guatemala, according to Mack.


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