As federal agents conduct aggressive and deadly immigration raids across the U.S., CalMatters’ Wendy Fry and Natasha Uzcátegui-Liggett report that their sweeps in San Diego have sent arrest numbers soaring and put residents on edge.
Between May through October 2025, immigration arrests in San Diego and Imperial counties increased by 1,500%, according to government data analyzed by CalMatters. In that time frame, federal agents arrested more than 4,500 people, compared to less than 300 in the same period the year before.
By September, the number of arrests in the two counties exceeded immigration arrests in the Los Angeles region — a much larger area that last summer President Donald Trump targeted and later sparked a high-profile dispute with California officials when he deployed the California National Guard…