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Leslie Thompson (photo, left) of El Cajon speaks out about Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Sept. 9 El Cajon City Council meeting
By Paul Levikow
Sept. 11, 2025 – (El Cajon) Protestors showed up at the El Cajon City Council meeting again this past week to continue voicing opposition to the city’s resolution regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
They also reminded Councilmember Phil Ortiz that their efforts to have him recalled from office are ramping up.
Their appearance came a day after the United States Supreme Court overturned a U.S. District Court Judge’s temporary restraining order in Los Angeles that barred federal agents from stopping people without reasonable suspicion.
The Supreme Court ruling allows agents to stop and detain people based on ethnicity, spoken language, type of work they do or their location.
Twelve speakers, some wearing T-shirts with messaging and holding signs, took turns calling out against the resolution, while some directed their comments to individual council members.
Connie Elder thanked Ortiz for inviting some of the protest leaders to his office for a chat after the previous contentious council meeting, saying they showed up in good faith and were a teeny bit hopeful that Ortiz might be open to discussion.
“Turns out he wasn’t interested in discussion” Elder said. “He wasn’t interested in listening. He was quite simply exhibiting his arrogance by manipulating them as if they were puppets on a string. But it’s all good, because it invigorated our efforts to collect signatures for his recall. In fact, I’ve been advised that the effort has picked up significant momentum and endorsements and planning of all kinds of new activities. So, you sir, I believe, are history.”
Leslie Thompson is an El Cajon resident and substitute teacher at Cajon Valley Union School District.
She told the council that she does not like the policy of cooperating with ICE, because ICE is not adhering to the mission that they stated, which is to seek criminals who are completely undocumented.
“Instead they are just going around and picking on anybody, doing racial profiling and conducting a campaign of terror,” Thompson said. “Children are afraid to go to school. Their parents are afraid to bring them to school and their parents are afraid to do other things in the community, such as shopping and going to work.”
“As a substitute teacher this is concerning for me because I don’t want children to feel unsafe. I don’t want to worry if they (ICE) are going to come to our school and try and get students’ parents. These are my students that I serve and they are also my neighbors. I would really like the City to only cooperate with ICE if they are actually looking for criminals, people who are sought for violent crimes.”
Mayor Bill Wells responded to Thompson saying “There is a law in California called SB 54 which doesn’t allow the city to cooperate with ICE even though we think we should, so thank you.”
“That’s not my understanding,” Thompson said.
“Your understanding is really irrelevant because that’s the law,” said Wells, who limited comments to two minutes per person, although the meeting had a shorter-than-usual agenda.
In fact, the city’s resolution does go beyond what state law allows, calling for police to cooperate with ICE in arresting people who are merely suspected of crimes, whereas state law allow cooperation only for undocumented persons convicted of certain serious crimes.
Chris Ford, who is a frequent participant in the public comments portion of El Cajon City Council meetings, is an El Cajon resident who is participating in efforts to recall Ortiz. He listed reasons ICE has used to deport those he referred to as innocent people.
“Being brown; being Black; being white but from dangerous countries like Germany, Canada, Australia; working in a restaurant; working on a farm; generally working jobs Americans like me aren’t going to do; being an American citizen but not having your birth certificate on hand.
"Being an Afghani translator for the Army; being a student; and sometimes, maybe when they don’t target the most vulnerable members of society, they will detain an actual violent criminal,” he said.
“ICE out of El Cajon, ICE out of San Diego, ICE out of California, recall Phil Ortiz (photo, right),” Ford said.
Carlos Perez, a 40-year resident of El Cajon wore a red shirt that said “Recall Ortiz.”
He asked Ortiz if his parents arrived in the U.S. legally or illegally. Ortiz did not respond.
“Phil Ortiz, as a pastor at Foothills Christian Church, did you know that Jesus was an immigrant? What happened to love thy neighbor?” Perez asked.
“Repent, resign, rescind. Out, out, out, out,” Perez shouted, pointing his finger at Ortiz.
Lifelong El Cajon resident Alexander Kraft (photo, left below) announced he will run for mayor.
“Mr. Wells, since you have chosen to ignore your responsibilities as mayor to the people of El Cajon, I’ll be taking over your job in 2026,” said Kraft, a union organizer who wants to represent needs of working people, according to his Instagram account.
“You have made it very clear that you’re more interested in a position in Congress or the County Board of Supervisors, " he told Mayor Wells, so I’ll be running for mayor of El Cajon and I’ll win and I’ll free you up to pursue another job.”
Kraft challenged Wells to a debate. Wells responded that they could talk about it closer to the election. Kraft said he would stick around until after the council meeting to coordinate with Wells.
Two speakers asked council member Steve Goble to sponsor a new resolution to reverse the previous one.
Councilmember Gary Kendrick commented between speakers.
“I just wanted to point out that Michelle (councilmember Metschel) and I voted against the resolution,” he said.
Attempts by ECM to contact Ortiz for a response were unsuccessful.
Ortiz supporters can visit his website to donate.
Supporters of the recall can get more information here.
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