Immigration and Customs Enforcement has reportedly begun a 45-day enforcement operation across California, starting in San Diego. Officers have been instructed to arrest any undocumented immigrant they encounter, regardless of criminal history, according to the report. The Washington Examiner first reported the operation, known internally as “Operation Safe California,” on October 7, citing unnamed sources familiar with the plan.
The Department of Homeland Security has neither confirmed nor denied the report. Asked about it, the agency said ICE does not disclose or discuss law enforcement operations for the safety of its officers, adding that DHS enforces the nation’s laws every day, including in California.
What is not in dispute is that enforcement on the ground has visibly intensified.
Sources describe a numbers-driven operation that moves north through November
The Examiner’s sources said officers from ICE’s Los Angeles and San Francisco field offices have been temporarily reassigned to San Diego to boost staffing. As the operation progresses, enforcement is expected to shift north through Los Angeles and reach San Francisco by November.
The most consequential detail in the report concerns who is being targeted. One source told the newspaper in a text message that management wants numbers. A second said officers were told they could pick up anybody.
The Examiner also reported the California deployment involves fewer federal personnel than the earlier Minnesota operation, and that it follows similar surges in Illinois, New York, and Oregon.
Organizers and a Central Valley congressman say enforcement has visibly increased
Mea Dominguez of the City Heights Defense Committee, which documents ICE presence and coordinates aid for affected families, said her group is getting calls from across the city and seeing new vehicles with out-of-state plates. Videos posted in recent days show arrests in a home improvement store parking lot off Imperial Avenue, an encounter at a gas station on El Cajon Boulevard, and agents near a construction site in North Park.
A community patroller told KPBS that the past week and a half has brought the biggest surge he has seen since he began monitoring ICE nearly two years ago. Organizers also reported agents near schools, including an incident involving a student outside Hoover High School.
Further north, Rep. David Valadao, a Republican whose district covers much of the Central Valley, said DHS officials confirmed to him that operations are underway there. The Valley Watch Network, a rapid-response group, said it began receiving calls about detentions in early October.
The statewide push also fits a pattern DHS itself announced. On September 27, the department said on X that ICE had begun a nationwide public safety surge in sanctuary jurisdictions, naming California among 11 states and Washington, D.C. That statement said officers would continue to arrest any and all undocumented immigrants they encounter, language that matches what the Examiner’s sources described.
Newsom and local officials push back as midterm timing draws scrutiny
Gov. Gavin Newsom responded to the reports on X, accusing the administration of using fear and panic as a weapon and saying California will hold federal agents accountable. He urged residents to know their rights and exercise them safely.
San Diego City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera said families in his district are sending children to school without knowing whether a parent will still be home that evening.
Timing is part of the controversy. If the operation runs its reported 45 days, it will still be active when voters go to the polls on November 3. Criticism is not limited to Democrats: Valadao, whose district has a large farmworker population, said in a statement that people who are working, raising families, and contributing to the agricultural economy should not have to live in fear, and called on Congress to fix the immigration system.
DHS has framed the broader sanctuary surge as a response to threats against its officers. In a September 24 statement, the department called on sanctuary politicians to stop what it described as hateful rhetoric toward ICE.
What this means for immigrants
Anyone without status in Southern California should treat the next several weeks as a period of elevated risk, whatever their record, and residents of Los Angeles and the Bay Area should expect the same by late October.
You are not required to open your door to ICE unless agents show a warrant signed by a judge; an administrative ICE form is not the same thing. You have the right to remain silent and to decline to sign anything without a lawyer. Carry proof of any lawful status you have, and avoid carrying foreign identity documents or anything else that could be used to establish your immigration status.
Families should have a plan in place before anything happens: a trusted adult authorized to pick up children, copies of important documents in a safe place, and the phone number of an immigration attorney or legal aid group written down, not just stored in a phone that may be confiscated. If a family member is detained, the ICE Online Detainee Locator can help find where they are being held. The California Attorney General’s office maintains guidance on immigrant rights under state law, including limits on how local police and schools may cooperate with federal agents.
Finally, be cautious with information. Rumors of ICE sightings spread quickly and are often wrong, which is why local rapid-response networks exist to verify them. Rely on those networks and on established legal organizations rather than unverified social media posts.