By Michael Lozano, CalMatters

Photo:  a line of federal immigration agents and protesters stand-off near the Glass House Farms facility outside Camarillo on July 10, 2025. Protesters gathered after federal agents conducted an immigration raid earlier in the day. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

July 27, 2025 (Sacramento) - They appeared in plain clothes outside a San Diego hotel, wore camouflage as they raided a Los Angeles factory and arrived with military gear at a Ventura County farm.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: screenshot of aerial video by ECM news partner 10 News shows military troops with razor wire at a staging site in the South Bay, as troops prepare to deploy to fortify U.S. - Mexico Border and aid in Trump crackdown on border crossings.

January 26, 2025 (San Diego) – A tough crackdown on immigrants has begun, after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the Southern Border. On Thursday, 1,500 active-duty military troops have been deployed to patrol the borders in San Diego and San Antonio, Texas, with the first soldiers arriving Thursday. 10 News shot footage showing troops, including hundreds from Camp Pendleton, arriving at staging area in Imperial Beach along with concertina razor wire, tents, and military trucks.

Yet according to Associated Press, data doesn’t back up Trump’s contention of an “invasion” of immigrants.  In fact,  AP reports, “arrests for illegal border crossings plummeted more than 80% to about 47,000 in December from an all-time high of 250,000 the same period a year earlier. Arrests fell by about half when Mexican authorities increased enforcement within their own borders a year ago and by about half again when former President Joe Biden introduced severe asylum restrictions in June.”

Immigration sweeps have also begun across the nation, striking fear into immigrant communities as Border Patrol agents in some areas reportedly demanded documentation of everyone stopped, including citizens. Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, told Fox News that ICE arrested over 308 “serious criminals” in the first 24 hours after Trump took office.

One day later, Newsweek reports, Trump’s Acting Secretary of Homeland Security  Benjamine Huffman lifted a long-standing ban, now allowing ICE to target immigrants in sensitive locations including schools, churches and hospitals.

In addition to fortifying the border to block crossings by migrants, including many seeking asylum and fleeing violence or persecution, Trump's administration has disabled the app which formerly allowed asylum-seekers to apply online without crossing the border, effectively blocking all asylum efforts, NPR reports. 

Plan also makes it easier for DACA recipients and immigrant college graduates to obtain work visas

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Immigrant rights march, via Wikimedia

June 18,2024 (Washington D.C.) – President Joe Biden today announced executive actions to protect a half million undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens from deportation, if they have lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years. An estimated 50,000 children under 21 with a U.S. citizen parent will also be protected from deportation. 

Until now, undocumented spouses and children of citizens had to leave the U.S. to apply for permanent residency, a process that often separated families for years. A similar parole in place program is already used to protect undocumented families of military members.

The new, broader parole-in-place program will allow parents and children to stay in the U.S. for three years while they apply for permanent residency.  All applicants will be vetted by the Department of Homeland Security to assure the applicant does not pose a threat to public safety or national security.

Reuters reports that the majority of those set to benefit from the order are Mexicans, many of them in California.

In addition, Biden announced a program to make it easier for Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and undocumented college graduates to obtain work visas/green cards if they have been offered a job related to their degree.

Update July 28, 2021: The deceased man has been identified as Victor Sosa-Soto, 33,  of Villa Hidalgo, Mexico, according to the San Diego Medical Examiner.

Story and photo by Miriam Raftery

Photo: Grave of an unknown migrant in Hemet, one of 10,000 people estimated to have died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border since 1994, according to Border Angels. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the rate is increasing, with more migrants dying crossing the border in the first three months of 2021 than in all of 2019.

July 18, 2021 (Dulzura) – On June 30, a search and rescue group found the body of a male believed to be from Mexico, part of a group of undocumented immigrants crossing the international border.

By Miriam Raftery

File photo: Pro-immigration protest in Washington D.C.

July 1, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – The U.S. House of Representatives has passed House Resolutions 3003 and 3004, measures aimed at cracking down on undocumented immigrants.  The measures, which punish sanctuary cities and states by withholding key funds, also boost penalties for certain immigrants who reenter the U.S. illegally after being deported three or more times. 

Study finds undocumented immigrants contribute $3 billion in California

Source: Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

May 8, 2017 (San Diego) -- Undocumented immigrants contribute roughly $3 billion in taxes to California each year, over $1.5 billion of which goes to county coffers.

According to a new study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), undocumented immigrants paid $109.8 million in taxes to San Diego County (in the form of property taxes and local sales taxes) and nearly $108.8 million in taxes to the state of California (in the form of personal income taxes and sales and excise taxes). 

By Miriam Raftery

February 11, 2017 (San Diego) – Immigration raids in cities across the nation conducted since Friday are striking fear among immigrant communities.  Although the Trump administration has claimed the sweeps are routine, some of those picked up for deportation have no criminal backgrounds, belying President Donald Trump’s post-election promise to focus on criminals.

By Logan Pollard, Public News Service

December 26, 2016 (Los Angeles) -- Some people in California are scrambling to get their identification and work documents in order by January. They are immigrants, concerned about President-elect Donald Trump's campaign promise to deport some 11 million undocumented people.

May 16, 2015 (Jacumba) – A bridge over Interstate 8 near Jacumba has been renamed to honor Eric Norman Cabral, a Border Patrol Agent who died of a heart attack caused by heat exhaustion suffered while tracking a group of suspected undocumented immigrants in the area.

East County News Service

February 17, 2015 (Sacramento)—A clear partisan divide separates Congress on immigration issues. But in a rare show of bipartisan unity, California’s State Senate unanimously approved a strongly worded resolution asking Congress to provide undocumented immigrants with a path to citizenship.