Across California, ICE summons migrants to their own arrests

The Mexican woman appeared at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in downtown San Diego on Oct. 17 for what she had been told was an annual, routine check-in. Even though she had lived in the United States for over 10 years, had no criminal record, and was following the legal immigration process, she was handcuffed by ICE agents and detained in the basement of the building. The next day, she would be transferred to a prison a hundred miles away. 

She was not allowed to say goodbye to her family members in person, only a several-minute phone call with her daughter, who burst into tears in the hallway of the office in the San Diego federal building. 

“Everyone who walks in here doesn’t walk out,” her lawyer, who did not want to share his identity for fear of retribution to his clients from immigration agents, said. She was his second client detained that week. 

In recent weeks, ICE offices across the state have adopted a similar tactic: summoning immigrants to mandatory but seemingly routine meetings, then arresting them once they arrive. 

The Department of Homeland Security did not answer questions from Times of San Diego and Stocktonia about the tactics behind the most recent arrests. 

But the effort appears to have spread across California since the beginning of October, with check-in arrests in San Diego, Stockton, and Fresno. 

Lawyers and advocates say these arrests create a catch-22 for immigrants. If they go to the appointments, they may be held for months and potentially deported. But if they fail to appear for a check-in, ICE can issue a formal deportation order against them, effectively ensuring their arrest and deportation. 

In response, advocates and immigration attorneys generally advise migrants to show up, but caution that people attending even a seemingly routine check-in should plan for the possibility of arrest. Most of the immigrants arrested are following legal immigration processes and have no criminal record.

“I’ve never seen this country broken apart like this,” the San Diego immigration attorney said.

Summoned, then arrested in Stockton, San Diego

On Saturday, activists said ICE officers summoned at least 50 people to their office in Stockton, even though the office is not normally open on the weekend. 

“There were a few lawyers who were on the ground, and they were having trouble actually getting into the building, but when they did get in, they were able to count around 24 to 25 people were detained,” said Lety Valencia, a member of Faith in the Valley, told Stocktonia after a vigil Tuesday morning where interfaith leaders denounced Saturday’s detainments. Faith in the Valley provides support to immigrant communities.

After the arrests, protesters used rocks to block the road in front of the building, and ICE closed the office for two days. Signs taped to the glass doors, hand-written in black marker, directed anyone with appointments to go to an office two hours away in San Francisco. Immigrants who could not make the drive began taking photos of themselves in front of the office in the hopes of proving that they intended to appear for the meeting to avoid a deportation order. But whether they would be safe from a future arrest is unclear. 

All it takes is “one mistake on paperwork” to have your case “thrown out,” said Harpreet Chima, a member of Working Class Unity, a group in Stockton that is supporting immigrants. “Knowing your rights is not a 100% guarantee that you’ll be OK because ICE is just doing whatever they want.” 

Since Oct. 9, ICE has detained more than 70 people at their San Diego office, after sending letters to these migrants notifying them of scheduled check-ins, according to local volunteer group Detention Resistance, who keeps a log of the arrests. They say most of these people arrive at the office expecting to sign paperwork or verify their identities, and are not prepared to be arrested.

The group instructs immigrants arriving at the building to write family members’ phone numbers on their arms in permanent marker and say goodbye to loved ones just in case they leave in handcuffs. 

In San Diego, on Oct. 16, ICE arrested a Russian man at a routine check-in at their San Diego office, after sending him a letter ordering him to attend a meeting. The next day, they arrested his wife using the same method. Both are now fighting their asylum case from a detention center.

“I am not scared, only because I already know they are going to arrest me,” Olga, the Russian woman said, just minutes before she was handcuffed and led away.  

As the immigrants waiting for their appointments watched people come out of the office one-by-one in handcuffs, several began to pray under their breath.
 

Few legal pathways 

Across the state, lawyers are filing petitions for what is known as a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that the detention of these immigrants at check-ins is illegal because they were not taken before a judge prior to being placed in detention, meaning they have been denied their right to due process. Dozens of people have been released from detention through this mechanism. 

But once an immigrant is detained, their case is more difficult to argue, says Stuart Hansen, an immigration lawyer in San Diego. At the Otay Mesa detention center, he says, “We can’t bring documents for clients to sign. Also, they transfer them without any notice.”

“They specifically called me in on a day when they knew my lawyer wouldn’t be there to advocate for me,” a Venezuelan woman who was arrested at her check-in with ICE in San Diego said. She said many immigrants choose not to bring lawyers with them to routine check-ins, because immigration lawyers charge as much as $1000 to accompany their clients to these meetings. 

Since President Donald J. Trump took office in January, ICE has arrested immigrants sporadically after court hearings and at check-ins across the country, prompting numerous lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Immigration Council, and the National Immigrant Justice Center, on behalf of individual clients. But the mass summoning of immigrants to ICE offices in order to make raid-style arrests is a newer strategy playing out this month in California. 

Since word has spread about these check-in arrests, immigrants wonder whether they should attend a check-in at an ICE office, or risk a deportation order if they don’t show up. 

“This administration uses any possible tactic to terrify our communities from speaking out,” Valencia said. 

Broadly, the Department of Homeland Security have defended the immigration-enforcement tactics. A statement sent in response to Times of San Diego’s questions last week said, “Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.,” though many people arrested have no criminal record. 

Officials did not answer repeated inquiries about why specific migrants had been detained, or about the conditions or locations where they were held after arrest. 

On Oct. 17, a woman from Guatemala arrived at the ICE office at the federal building in San Diego, where she was informed by volunteers waiting outside that she might be detained. She fled to the United States with the intention of seeking asylum after receiving death threats last year, but had not submitted her formal application yet, because she could not find a lawyer she could afford. 

“Should I go in? What do you think?” she asked the spectators in the hallway, who could not offer her an answer. She paced back and forth for a few minutes. Then, she went inside. 

Lillian Perlmutter covers immigration for Times of San Diego and NEWSWELL.