Update June 3, 2025 -- Homeland Security has taken down its list of sanctuary jurisdictions amid controversy nationwide.

By Miriam Raftery

Image via Immigration and Customs Enforcement:  ICE stop in Florida

May 30, 2025 (San Diego) –A list of over 500 “sanctuary jurisdictions” published by the Dept. of Homeland Security yesterday includes San Diego County and four local cities: Santee, San Diego, Chula Vista, and Vista. The criteria for inclusion is baffling, since the list includes both conservative-run and liberal-run jurisdictions locally.

The DHS website claims the jurisdictions are “deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws” but does not specific why any specific city or county is on the list. Under an executive order issued by President Donald Trump on April 28, federal grants and contracts with sanctuary jurisdictions are to be suspended or terminated.

Although the DHS site states that jurisdictions would be notified, all five local jurisdictions have indicated that they did not receive any notification before being publicly listed and local leaders dispute the designation.

By Alexander J Schorr

May 19, 2025 (San Diego) -- East County Magazine editor Miriam Raftery interviewed Nora Milner, an immigration attorney based in San Diego. This interview originally aired April 4 on KNJS radio, with a Youtube video available. Milner, who works at the Milner & Markee (LLP) law firm, specializes in immigration law.

In the interview, she voiced alarm over blatant denials of due process for immigrants under the Trump administration, warned that even citizens are not safe, and offered tips for those concerned about being visited by ICE or detained for potential deportation.

View the appellate court ruling

By Miriam Raftery

File photo: St. Peter's Chaldean Catholic Cathedral in El Cajon

April 30, 2025 (El Cajon) – The 4^th district Court of Appeals has ruled against the Chaldean Coalition over supervisorial redistricting. The lawsuit, Chaldean Coalition v. The County of San Diego Independent Redistricting Commission et al, filed in 2021 had argued that the Chaldean community was disenfranchised by the County’s supervisorial redistricting in East County.

By Miriam Raftery

March 3, 2025 (Washington D.C.) – Threats issued by President Donald Trump targeting colleges, universities and student protesters are illegal and unconstitutional, according to legal and civil liberties experts.

Today, Trump posted on his social media account, “All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came.  American students will be permanently expelled or depending on on the crime, arrested.NO MASKS!”

The post comes on the heels of two executive orders issued by Trump which seek to pressure higher education officials to target immigrant students and staff for exercising First Amendment freedom of spech rights, including pro-Palestinian protesterrs or students critical of the U.S. government, culture, institutions or founding principals. Today's Truth Social post goes further, demanding that even students who are U.S. citizens be expelled and imprisoned for participating in campus protests if deemed "illegal.".

By Chris Jennewein, Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo:   a child at Jewish Family Service of San Diego’s refugee shelter. (File photo by Chris Stone/Times of San Diego)

February 17, 2025 (San Diego) - Faced with a halt in federal funding and and the closing of the border to refugees, Jewish Family Service of San Diego is shutting down its shelter and shifting focus to legal support of asylum seekers.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo via Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego on Facebook

February 11, 2025 (San Diego, CA) – Multiple faith leaders and a crowd of around 1,500 people overflowed the St. Joseph Cathedral and then held a procession to the federal building downtown and prayers in support of undocumented immigrants, chanting “our neighbors, our coworkers, our brothers and sisters,” the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego posted on Facebook.

Cardinal Robert McElroy, whom the Pope has appointed Archbishop of Washington D.C., spoke at the event, as did Episcopalian Bishop Susan Brown Snook and other faith leaders.

“Just as Jesus, Mary and Joseph had to flee oppression to another land when they were on this Earth," Cardinal McElroy said, “So too we must stand with those who are immigrants here in our midst now and make sure that their safety is secure, and that humanity is respected.”

By Miriam Raftery

View video of full Council hearing (Immigration agenda item begins at 37 minutes.)

January 29, 2025 – Emotions ran high during yesterday’s El Cajon City Council meeting, where a packed chamber heard testimony from 88 members of the public over a proposed over immigration enforcement resolution, followed by a heated Council debate that divided the all-Republican members during a hearing that ran over five hours.

The measure introduced by Mayor Wells, a revision from a version heard two weeks ago, aims to authorize El Cajon police to comply with federal immigration enforcement officials within the limits of state law and the Constitution for the purpose of removing violent criminals.

But the action comes on the same day that the White House Press Secretary indicated that the Trump administration views all undocumented immigrants as “criminals” even though crossing the border itself is a misdemeanor on the first offense, not a felony or violent crime.

Sweeps by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have begun nationwide, picking up many immigrants with no criminal record—including an El Cajon man with no criminal record who was awaiting his asylum hearing when arrested  this week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at his home in front of his five-year-old daughter, Councilman Michelle Metschel revealed in an impassioned speech.

Impact has left refugee aid groups locally and nationally in shock

By Miriam Raftery

Photo via Pentagon:  Troops evacuating Afghans after fall of Kabul

January 26, 2025 (San Diego) – Following an executive order issued by Donald Trump to suspend refugee resettlement,  the Trump administration has cancelled all flights for over 10,000 refugees already approved to resettle in the United States. According to Associated Press. This includes over 1,660 Afghans who helped America’s military as well as relatives of active-duty U.S. military personnel, Reuters reports.

The impacts hit hard in San Diego County, which in recent years has resettled more refugees from around the world than any other county in the U.S. including refugees from Africa, Asia, war-torn Middle-Eastern countries such as Iraq and Syria, Ukraine and other European nations, Haitian refugees fleeing natural disasters, and many more.

“This executive order is a step backwards for America,” the International Rescue Committee states on its website, urging the Trump administration to reverse the order. 

The Trump administration has taken down entirely the State Department's page on the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

By Miriam Raftery

Image: Wong Kim Ark, whose landmark 1898 lawsuit led to a Supreme Court ruling affirming citizenship for all children born in the U.S., regardless of parents' immigration status. Born in the U.S.,Kim had been denied reentry after traveling abroad. Photo via 1904 immigration document.

January 21, 2025 (Washington D.C.) – Multiple lawsuits have been filed seeking to block an executive order yesterday issued by President Donald Trump which aims to end birthright citizenship. Trump’s order seeks to end citizenship from being issued to children born in the U.S. if the parents are not in the U.S. legally In addition, his order would prohibit citizenship from children born to a mother who is in the U.S. on a temporary and legal basis, such as student, work, or tourist visas, unless the father is a citizen or lawful permanent resident. The order would take effect in 30 days, on Feb. 19, and apply to children born on or after that date.

The order is in direct contradiction to the U.S. Constitution’s 14^th amendment, which states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” Trump’s order contends that children of undocumented immigrants as well as children born to mothers here on a temporary basis are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S..

By Miram Raftery

January 15, 2025 (San Diego) – President-elect Donald Trump has  pledged “mass deportations” of 11 million undocumented immigrants, most of whom do not have criminal backgrounds. But many people are unaware that he has also threatened to revoke temporary protected status (TPS) from some immigrants who are here legally.

San Diego’s  East County is home to many people who came here with TPS status, including Iraqis and Afghans who worked for the U.S. government, such as translators for our military, as well as Somalis and Sudanese displaced by civil unrest, and Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion.

Currently, 17 nations have TPS designations which protect immigrants such  as Afghans who helped the U.S. military,  Ukrainians, Syrians and Sudanese with war-torn homelands, and Haitians displaced by earthquakes and gang violence after the assassination of the nation’s president. The list also includes immigrants from Burma, Cameroon, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Lebanon, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, Venezuela, and Yemen.

Asked if he would revoke temporary protected status for TPS holders such as Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, Trump told News Nation,” Absolutely, I’d revoke it.”  

Story and photos by Henri Migala

Video links of the event are found at the end of the article.

December 31, 2024 (El Cajon) - On December 21, the Syrian community of San Diego County held a community gathering in Kennedy Park in El Cajon to celebrate Syria’s liberation. Approximately 300-400 members of the Syrian community, including men, women and children, including elderly, attended the gathering to share their excitement for the fall of the Bashar Assad regime in Syria by dancing, sharing food, waving Syrian and US flags, and sharing stories.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: screenshot from video by the Aja Project on the Refugee and Immigrant Cultural Hub

December 3, 2024 (San Diego) – A 3-D model of a planned Refugee and Immigrant Cultural Hub (RICH) will be unveiled on December 7 at 5555 University Avenue in San Diego’s mid-city community to serve the diverse needs of San Diego’s large refugee population.

East County News Service

September 12, 2024 (El Cajon) – The 12^th annual Chaldean-American Festival takes place Saturday, Sept. 14 from 3-10 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 15 from 3 to 9 p.m.  Celebrating the rich culture of the 50,000 Chaldeans who call San Diego County home, the festival includes authentic food, live music, carnival rides, a petting zoo, raffle, vendors and more.

This year’s festival will be held at Hillsdale Middle School, 1301 Brabham St. in El Cajon.