ICE launches statewide crackdown in California ahead of midterm elections
ICE has begun a 45-day operation across California, arresting all undocumented migrants regardless of criminal history, weeks before the midterms.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has initiated a roughly six-week enforcement drive called Operation Safe California, beginning in the San Diego area and slated to progress through Los Angeles and end in San Francisco. Sources say the plan directs officers to detain any undocumented person they encounter, irrespective of criminal background, as management seeks high arrest tallies. The campaign targets both “the worst of the worst” and non-criminal illegal immigrants, mirroring earlier surges in Minnesota, Illinois, New York and Oregon.
While fewer federal officers are deployed than in the Minnesota operation, ICE units have been placed on six-day workweeks and previous leave cancelled. The move arrives a month before the midterm elections, reflecting the Trump administration’s strategy to pressure a sanctuary state. DHS neither confirmed nor denied the operation, noting it cannot discuss ongoing law-enforcement actions.
Why it matters
The crackdown could affect thousands of undocumented residents and influence voter sentiment in a pivotal election state.
How this story developed
- Aug 13 San Antonio immigrants live in constant fear as ICE arrests surge
- Sep 1 ICE carried out a raid in Memphis that arrested more than 100 people, the largest raid in the city’s history.
- Sep 11 A judge dismissed the deportation case against the Andhra Pradesh woman, yet ICE continued to require her reporting.
- Sep 17 ICE agent Christian Castro turned himself in to Minnesota authorities on a warrant for assault after shooting a Venezuelan man, and faces both state and federal charges.
- Sep 18 Castro entered a not‑guilty plea to the federal false‑statement charges.
- Sep 20 A man was wounded after being shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in North Austin, Texas, and taken to a local hospital.
- Sep 27 A federal judge scheduled a personal appearance for the man on September 30 and issued a temporary order halting his deportation.
- Sep 29 The U.S. Supreme Court granted the Justice Department’s emergency request, letting the Trump administration continue deporting migrants to third countries while the policy’s legality is examined.
- Sep 30 Supreme Court issued an emergency order allowing third‑country deportations to continue.
- Sep 30 An immigration judge ruled that Salah Sarsour, head of Wisconsin’s largest mosque, can be deported on national-security grounds despite his claim that the case targets his Palestinian-rights advocacy.
- Sep 30 The Justice Department lodged complaints with the 8th Circuit alleging that Minnesota federal judges made partisan statements about a Trump-era deportation surge.
- Oct 1 A federal indictment charging Garces Perez with assault was filed.
- Oct 3 The filing requests that the judges be barred from hearing Department of Homeland Security cases.
- Oct 3 A Chicago immigration judge allowed a possible deportation of Salah Sarsour.
In this story
Related stories
113 in this thread