Immigration and Customs Enforcement

DEAF MONGOLIAN IMMIGRANT HELD BY ICE IN OTAY MESA FOR MONTHS WITHOUT ACCESS TO INTERPRETER

The Otay Mesa Detention Center operated by CoreCivic. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Times of San Diego)
 
By Wendy Fry, CalMatters
 
July 14, 2025 (San Diego County) -- A deaf Mongolian man has spent more than four months in a Southern California immigrant detention center without the opportunity to communicate with anyone who understands Mongolian Sign Language, according to his civil rights attorney. 
 
“He’s basically been in solitary confinement because he has not had one person actually speak to him in Mongolian Sign Language for the entirety of the time that he’s been in proceedings and detained,” said his attorney, Alegría De La Cruz, director of litigation for the Disability Rights Legal Center.
 
U.S. Southern District of California Judge Dana Sabraw this week ordered officials at the Otay Mesa Detention Center to provide him with a Mongolian Sign Language interpreter. 

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36 MEMBERS OF SINALOA CARTEL ARRESTED; DRUGS AND WEAPONS SEIZED, U.S. ATTORNEY ANNOUNCES

Arrestees include Border Patrol agent and East County residents
 
Two more AR-style rifles, a pistol, magazines, and Russian-made ammunition, all of which, prosecutors say, were exchanged for drugs. Photo courtesy of the Office of the United States Attorney Southern District of California
 
East County News Service
 
June 9, 2024 (San Diego) – In sweeping raids across multiple counties including San Diego, 400 officers from dozens of agencies arrested 36 members of the Sinaloa cartel for a “fentanyl and methamphetamine distribution network” based in Imperial Valley, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of California. Charges were filed against 47 alleged members of the criminal operation, including 11 who remain fugitives from justice.

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"I AM DEVASTATED, I FEAR FOR HIS LIFE." AUNT SPEAKS OUT FOR RUSSIAN MIGRANT ORDERED DEPORTED

By Bransen P. Harper 
 
Contributor: Patrick J. Watkins
 
May 10, 2024 (San Diego) – A young Russian migrant in Jacumba Hot Springs told East County Magazine several weeks ago that he fled his homeland after being persecuted and beaten for opposing Russia’s “unjust war of terror” in Ukraine.  But now his hopes of freedom in America have been dashed. 
 
An immigration judge has denied his asylum claim and ordered a 19-year-old Russian immigrant deported, according to his aunt and his attorney. HIs real name is being withheld for his protection.

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BODY BEAUTIFUL CAR WASH, INC. TEAMS WITH HOMELAND SECURITY TO PROMOTE LEGAL HIRING

  

July 9, 2011 (San Diego County) – A San Diego business is the first car wash in the country to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in an innovative program that helps businesses ensure that all their employees are authorized to work in the United States. 

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