El Cajon Community Seeks to Uncover the Truth about Mayor Bill Wells’ Collusion with ICE and Nativist Group

El Cajon, CA – On Tuesday, residents and local advocates denounced ICE’s recent workplace raids in their community and took the next steps to hold their local officials accountable for their complicity in Trump’s mass deportations. Organizations submitted an Open Records Act request to the City of El Cajon to uncover the truth about the city mayor and council’s collusion with ICE and Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan.

“It is a sad day when our own city officials are trying to deport their own neighbors!” remarked Violeta, a resident of El Cajon and community leader with Latinos in Action. “Mayor Bill Wells and City Council Members Phil Ortiz and Steve Goble: You can pretend you didn’t know. But we told you: your anti-immigrant stunts promote Trump’s MAGA agenda and its violence hurts working families. Today, it’s already causing human suffering, including many of your own constituents.”

On March 27, federal immigration police from ICE-HSI arrested over 15 workers in an ICE raid at a local paint shop in El Cajon.

“Make no mistake, these types of actions terrorize working families and cause tremendous trauma to members of our communities. These are constituents of the elected officials that hold office in El Cajon,” said Pedro Rios of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). “[These officials] should be held accountable for their actions, instead they are having secret meetings with the current Administration, seeking to deport hard-working community members.”

The groups ended their press conference delivering a Public Records Act request to “uncover the truth about El Cajon officials’ collusion with ICE. Latinos in Action led a delegation of 30 residents, advocates and community attorneys to hand-deliver the “PRA” request to the city clerk. The PRA is an official request, under state law, for the city to disclose internal communication between city officials and ICE, DHS, Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan, and the nativist group “America First Legal.”

By law, the city has 10 business days to respond. Read the full Public Records Act request here. The request reads in part:

“The information requested herein is necessary to ensure that the ongoing debate is an
informed one. Your prompt compliance is requested in order to vindicate “the
fundamental and necessary right of every person in this state . . . [to have] access
concerning the conduct of the people’s business” as it pertains to this vital matter.”

Watch the full press conference here. Photos and interviews available upon request.

“El Cajon’s city officials are using their seats to push pro-trump resolutions that have no legal weight but do cause plenty of harm. They sow division and unfairly target their own hard- working neighbors. They endorsed these mass deportation politics, and now we are seeing the results,” said Mairene Branham, Latinos in Action President.

The press conference and PRA request was joined by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), and the Employee Rights Center of San Diego (ERC), which highlighted the impact of ICE’s workplace raids on workers across the U.S.

“Workers all around San Diego County and around this country are taking notice – that our work, our dignity is not being respected. On behalf of the ERC, I want to say we are paying attention, we will be present, and will follow through with families and the entire community, because acts like this demonstrate a failure to respect the most basic rights of all workers,” said Alor Calderon, Executive Director of the Employee Rights Center of San Diego.

“Let us be clear, what happened was deeply felt by the entire community, and we will respond as a community. Somebody’s parent was deported after working at the company for 18 years… all that [ICE] did was cripple that family. That’s what [ICE] did.” added Mairene.