Elo-Rivera calls for more transparency from SDPD about ICE interactions

The police department is supposed to report to both the mayor's office and City Council offices when its officers show up to federal immigration operations.

Written by Kate Morrissey, Edited by Lauren J. Mapp

City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera is calling on the San Diego Police Department to be more transparent about when its officers show up to situations involving federal immigration enforcement.

Last week, the councilmember for District 9 said he is calling on the department to make public its reports about when officers respond to Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other federal immigration officials. 

“I want everyone to feel safe,” Elo-Rivera said. “I don't think people can feel safe if they don't have a high level of trust in their local police department, and they will not have that level of trust absent transparency from the police department.”

In July 2025, Mayor Todd Gloria issued an executive order telling the police department to report to his office when its officers respond to situations involving federal immigration enforcement activity. In April 2026, San Diego City Council passed the Due Process and Safety Ordinance similarly requiring the police department to notify the offices of council members when its officers respond to ICE activity.

Elo-Rivera said his office has received only four notifications. In an Instagram post, he said that at least one office hasn't received any notifications.

Communications obtained by Daylight San Diego through a public records request show that police texted staff of Gloria's office about at least seven incidents from July through Dec. 17, 2025. 

The incidents include an Aug. 18, 2025 call from Border Patrol agents for assistance after the agents targeted a car in an immigration operation, according to a text message sent from police to mayor's office staffer Lucero Maganda. The text message says that the car refused to stop and Border Patrol agents pursued it. The person in the car eventually abandoned it and fled on foot, the text message says. Someone living nearby called police about a potential prowler, and police responded to that call before leaving the area, according to the text message.

Several of the text messages describe situations in which ICE or Border Patrol told police that protesters were impeding their work.

Gloria's office declined to release more recent records even though it took roughly 10 months for the office to respond to the records request. It's not clear why the texts didn't include an incident in which San Diego police showed up at the 47th Street Trolley Station when ICE agents called for help after several of them tackled someone filming them to the ground last November.

According to Ashley Nicholes, a spokesperson for the police department, as of Oct. 15, the department has sent 12 reports total to the mayor's office because of the executive order.

“The San Diego Police Department has long been committed to keeping our communities and elected officials informed about our involvement in incidents involving federal immigration enforcement,” Nicholes said.

She said that the ordinance doesn't require reporting of every instance when San Diego police show up to ICE activity — just when the federal officials are conducting immigration-related operations.

“In many cases, SDPD officers are called to maintain public safety when tensions arise between federal agents and community members, even when federal officials are not investigating an alleged crime involving a protected personal characteristic,” Nicholes said. “While these incidents do not trigger the (Due Process and Safety Ordinance’s) formal notification requirements, we still notify the affected Council office and the Mayor’s Office, so they know what happened and why officers are there.”

Elo-Rivera said that the police department should've been notifying the whole City Council about these situations.

“SDPD should understand the intent of the law that we wrote because we sat down at the table to get their input on the language,” Elo-Rivera said. “They know exactly what they're supposed to be reporting.”

He said that he decided to push back on the department publicly because in the past, Chief Scott Wahl has told him that he didn't want to weigh in publicly on controversial issues. But recently, when more City Council members announced that they no longer support the department's use of Flock automated license plate readers, the department began an intense campaign to keep its surveillance technology.

“To see that level of advocacy and communication happening on one front and complete silence on the other, that is a huge, huge problem to me and is a misread of where the public is at in terms of feeling safe and what they need to feel safe,” Elo-Rivera said.

After Elo-Rivera's call out last week, the police department issued a memo on Friday that says, going forward, it will email the mayor's office and all City Council offices within three days of any incident involving federal immigration officials.

Elo-Rivera said he still wants to see the department make those reports public, similar to critical incident reports it releases when a police officer shoots someone.

Nicholes said that the police department has turned over the records when someone requested them through a public records request.