El Cajon immigration raid shows stark change in enforcement priorities under President Trump

Jorge Lopez is a youth soccer coach who has been living in the country since he was 13. He’s married to a U.S. citizen and has four U.S. citizen children.

And now he’s in the Otay Mesa Detention Center facing deportation. On Friday, a judge is scheduled to decide whether to release him on bond.

Lopez was 1 of 15 immigrants without legal status arrested during the March 27 raid of an industrial paint shop in El Cajon. The case underscores the change in immigration enforcement priorities under President Donald Trump, said Tessa Cabrera, Lopez’s lawyer.

“He is very active in the community and active in his children's lives,” Cabrera said.

Previous administrations prioritized immigrants with violent criminal convictions. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would focus on targeted arrests of individuals instead of rounding up everyone suspected of being in the country illegally.

“Typically, we see more of a targeted enforcement rather than an entire workplace being detained at one time,” Cabrera said. “I hadn’t seen that thus far. Frankly, I’m not shocked and I expect that to become more of the norm.”

During the March raid, ICE agents detained every employee of San Diego Powder & Protective Coatings. Employees told KPBS that federal agents zip-tied their hands and forced them to wait outside under the hot sun for hours while agents verified everyone’s immigration status.

U.S. citizens were allowed to leave but the 15 people who could not prove their citizenship were held until 9 p.m. and transported to the Otay Mesa Detention Center. ICE has refused to release their names to the public.

Activists with the American Friends Service Committee are trying to keep track of immigrants detained in the raid but not criminally charged. Of those initially sent to Otay Mesa, at least two have been deported and at least one has been transferred to another facility outside the state, according to multiple sources.

Federal prosecutors charged four people at San Diego Powder & Protective Coatings — including a manager and three workers — with knowingly hiring people without legal status, court records show.

Complex views on immigration

Most Americans agree that immigrants without legal status who are convicted of violent crimes should be deported, according to a new report from the PEW Research Center.

However, support for deportations decrease significantly for immigrants without legal status who have jobs, were brought into the country as children, are married to U.S. citizens or have U.S. citizen children.

“Our survey showed that U.S. adults hold complex views on immigration,” said Luis Neo-Bustamante, one of the co-authors. “Most favor some level of deportations. At the same time, they have a variety of opinions on who should be deported.”

Friends, relatives and lawyers of the men detained during the El Cajon raid said they don’t have violent criminal records. At least two, including Lopez, have U.S. citizen children.

ICE’s refusal to share the names of every individual detained prevents KPBS from independently checking their criminal backgrounds. But ICE detention data shows that the vast majority of people currently held at the Otay Mesa facility do not have a criminal background.

Current ICE data shows 954 of the 1,104 men in Otay are categorized as noncriminal detainees. Similarly, 241 of the 258 women there are labeled as noncriminal detainees.

Advocates point out that arresting people with no violent criminal history has a negative impact on communities.

“Let us be clear, what happened was deeply felt by the entire community,” said Mairene Branham, president of Latinos in Action. “Somebody’s parent was deported after working for the company for 18 years. All that ICE did was cripple that family.”