ICE RAIDS EL CAJON PAINTING COMPANY, ARRESTS UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS

Update March 29:  Company owner John Washburn has been charged with conspiracy to harbor aliens; employees Gilver Martinez-Juanta, Miguel Angel Leal-Sanchez and Fernando Casas-Gamboa are charged with falsifying documents to obtain employment in the U.S., according to a press release from the U.S. Attorneys Office in San Diego.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo courtesy of Sky 10 via ABC 10 News, an ECM news partner

March 28, 2025 (El Cajon) – Federal immigration authorities raided the San Diego Powder and Protective Coatings company on Magnolia Ave. in El Cajon yesterday afternoon.  A search warrant accuses the company of hiring undocumented workers, as well as fraud and misuse of visas, ECM news partner 10 News reports.

Shawn Gibson, ICE Homeland Security Investigations special agent in charge of San Diego, said agents arrested fewer than 20 people while executing a criminal search warrant. The arrests included administration arrests for violation of immigration laws as well as criminal arrests.

Employees told KPBS that around 50 workers were handcuffed and forced to stand in the sun, with requests for water denied, while agents verified immigration status of each person. U.S. citizens were later freed to leave, while others were taken into custody and face potential deportation.

Blanca Corona told KPBS that her husband, a youth soccer coach and the family’s primary wage earner was detained. “We have four kids,” she said, holding back tears.  Corona said she and her children are citizens and that the family had hired a lawyer to help her husband adjust his status, but he was arrested anyway.

According  Cto 10 News, agents with Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, along with what appeared to be several other law enforcement agencies, participated in the enforcement sweep. An El Cajon Councilman has confirmed that El Cajon Police did not participate in the raid, which was in the unincorporated part of El Cajon.  A witness told ECM that a Blackhawk helicopter was hovering overhead during the raid.

The action is part of a nationwide crackdown on undocumented immigrants carried out by the Trump administration. 

A spokesperson for Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, whose district includes El Cajon, said her office has sent inquiries to ICE and DHS to learn more and to assure that people’s rights and due process are being followed.

Serious questions over mistreatment of deported immigrants have been raised. 

The Trump administration deported some to the infamous prison at Guantanamo Bay, but later returned those detainees to facilities in the U.S. following protests and a Congressional oversight visit. Some may be returned to their home countries or to other nations.

Recently, the Trump administration sent some migrants, allegedly violent Venezuelan gang members, to a prison in El Salvador infamous for human rights abuses. The administration officials defied a judge’s order to turn planes around that were flying migrants to El Salvador, amid concerns over due process rights violations. The judge is weighing contempt of court charges against administration officials. 

Meanwhile the Trump Justice Dept. has asked the Supreme Court to intervene to allow the deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.