City Heights rally against ICE calls for volunteers and elected officials to support local immigrants
Hosted by Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, the rally featured several community organizations helping on the ground, including Haitian Bridge Alliance, City Heights Defense Committee, Detention Resistance, the Employee Rights Center and a Haitian church gathering supplies to support families.
Written by Kate Morrissey, Edited by Lauren J. Mapp
After Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers increased arrests of community members in City Heights in recent weeks, hundreds of San Diegans gathered on the neighborhood's streets on Wednesday evening to protest.
Immigration arrests across the San Diego region have risen over the summer, according to government data obtained by the Deportation Data Project, with at least one news outlet calling San Diego ICE's new epicenter. Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera urged San Diegans to get involved helping their neighbors by dropping off needed supplies with a local Haitian church and volunteering to patrol their communities for signs of ICE activity.
“I believe that City Heights is the best of this city,” Elo-Rivera said. “And, I'll go a little bit further than that. If there's an ideal version of this country, and I want to believe that there is, I believe it exists right here — people of every faith, from every corner of the world, speaking dozens of languages in one neighborhood, building a better life not just for themselves, but for the generations coming after that.”
Officers have particularly targeted Haitian community members, and have racially profiled Black and Brown people, including U.S. citizens, according to several speakers during the rally. They even temporarily detained a high school girl on her way to school, according to Richard Barrera, a member of the San Diego Unified School Board.
Video footage has shown officers arresting several parents shortly after dropping their children off at schools.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
Rev. Johny Oxeda of Fairmount Haitian Community Church, said he's gathering supplies, including food, diapers and feminine hygiene products, as well as monetary donations to assist with rent, for the affected families.
“These are not statistics. They are our neighbors,” Oxeda said. “I have heard from a family too afraid to buy groceries, too afraid to go to work, too afraid to send the children to school."
His colleague Rev. Rony Gilot urged local government leaders to do more to help coordinate aid for the families.
Adriana from the Association of Raza Educators called on school districts and local officials to create safe zones around schools during drop off and pick up times. She said districts should train and protect staff to do community patrols near the schools.
“Teachers should not have to become the last line of defense for our students, because our districts refuse to act,” she said. “The responsibility to protect our students cannot fall solely on educators and families.”
Hundreds march to protest recent immigration arrests in City Heights on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. Kate Morrissey/Daylight San Diego
Rev. Kristen Kuriga of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego said local officials should instruct San Diego police to monitor ICE officers for evidence of breaking state and local laws and record the names of those officers as Chicago officials did during Operation Midway Blitz. She said local officials should also extend rental assistance to families affected by immigration enforcement.
She said both the San Diego Organizing Project and the Employee Rights Center are gathering volunteers to support affected families.
“This has been the history of people in communities. We have always helped each other survive in times of oppression,” Kuriga said. “We hope that every person here will think about, ‘What can I do for my neighbor? What can I do for my community? What do I have to give?’ But it's not just incumbent on us everyday people to be people of moral courage and to live out love in the world. It is also the responsibility of our elected officials to protect our communities.”
Mayor Todd Gloria nodded quietly near her as she spoke.
When Elo-Rivera called him to the podium, the crowd booed loudly amid cries to cancel Flock surveillance. Many have criticized the mayor's response to concerns about San Diego police showing up to ICE operations as well as his support for using automated license place readers within the police force.
Elo-Rivera begged the crowd to give Gloria a chance to speak, but the crowd only quieted after the pastor Oxeda asked people to listen on behalf of the Haitian community.
“Listen, we will disagree on issues. There's no doubt,” Gloria said. “But right now, when this community is hurting, there is no daylight between me and any of you on the fact that ICE is harming our community. What they are doing is cowardly. What they are doing is wrong, and most importantly, what they're doing is un-American. And we're here to condemn it and to say that we do not want it here.”
When Gloria finished speaking, the crowd chanted, “Cancel Flock!”
Benjamin Prado with Unión del Barrio, a community patrol group, also called for an end to the use of Flock surveillance. He said that his group stood in solidarity with the Haitian community because historically, Haitians showed the way in this hemisphere how to fight against oppression by forming their own country.
“La tierra es de quien la trabaja. Los mexicanos hemos estado aquí antes de que esas fronteras fueron impuestas. Nosotros como mexicanos claramente estamos en nuestra propia tierra,” Prado said, speaking in Spanish to emphasize his point. The land belongs to who works it. Mexicans, we've been here since before those borders were imposed. We as Mexicans clearly are on our own land.
After about an hour of speeches at the corner of Fairmount and University avenues, the crowd of hundreds marched to Euclid Elementary, where Elo-Rivera called on San Diegans to join with and support several community groups doing on-the-ground work.
“This is City Heights! We will defend our rights!” the crowd chanted.
Daylight San Diego
Attorney Charlotte Wiener with Haitian Bridge Alliance urged people to call their senators to push for the passage of Senate Bill 4814, which would give temporary protected status back to Haitians after the Trump administration ended it despite the dangerous conditions in Haiti, and of the Dream and Promise Act, which would provide green cards to people who previously had temporary protected status, among other groups.
“Yes, the status was supposed to be temporary, Wiener said. “Temporary in this case meant that they would have this status until their country was safe to return. And is Haiti really safe to return to now? No, Haiti has not ever been more unsafe.”
Tea, a member of the City Heights Defense Committee, said he was in the parking lot of El Super on Fairmount Avenue on Tuesday when he noticed ICE officials in an unmarked car. He said the officials racially profiled a Black man and detained him even though he was a lawful resident of the U.S. While detaining him, the officers threw two women against cars and on the ground, Tea said, breaking their phones.
“Watching that was not normal,” Tea said. “We live in the United States. We live in San Diego. We're supposed to be at the beach, not seeing armed thugs ram our citizens, our defenseless citizens, innocent citizens, against the floor and take them away to God knows where. That's not something we should be experiencing.”
TikTok influencer Arturo Gonzalez said he was also there on Tuesday. He said that when ICE officers detained the man, they left his belongings behind where someone could have stolen them.
“Luckily, we were there. City Heights Defense was there. Many community members were there,” Gonzalez said. “We protected his belongings and looked for his family. That is exactly why we show up. Because when ICE enters our communities, we don't just sit back and watch. We warn our neighbors. We document, we respond, and we make sure that people aren't left alone.”
Carrie Ryuko, a volunteer with Detention Resistance, called ICE's actions a terror campaign. Her group focuses on supporting people in ICE custody as well as monitoring ICE activity at the federal building downtown.
“The violence doesn't end once our community and families are hunted down,” Ryuko said. “The violence continues behind closed doors where they are subjected to deadly conditions.”
Alor Calderon from the Employee Rights Center urged San Diegans to get involved.
“Now the time is to say we show up with our bodies,” Calderon said. “We show up with our hands. We show up with our time. We show up with our money, we show up with our concerns and ideas, and we show up, and we do something about it.”
How to help
People interested in volunteering can bring food, diapers, other supplies and monetary donations to the Fairmount Haitian Community Church at 4100 Fairmount Ave. or contact Rev. Johny Oxeda at 619-815-6913.
They can contact Detention Resistance and City Heights Defense Committee via their respective Instagram accounts, and they can contact Haitian Bridge Alliance at 619-215-1050 or 619-228-9576. They can connect with the Employee Rights Center at 619-521-1372 or online.
For more ways to get involved with supporting immigrants in San Diego, check out the Daylight guide.
