Timeline: What ICE arrests have looked like at the San Diego federal building
Volunteers with Detention Resistance have kept meticulous notes about the detentions and day-to-day changes happening around the San Diego Immigration Court and ICE offices.
Written by Kate Morrissey, Edited by Lauren J. Mapp
Though the San Diego Immigration Court is far from the busiest, it ranks among the highest in terms of arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in its hallways.
That's according to data gathered by Detention Resistance, a grassroots collective of volunteers who accompany people to court hearings and ICE check-in appointments and document detentions, along with changes to a system that seek to lock more people up and pressure them to give up and leave the United States.
More than 50 immigration courts around the country have received more new cases this year than the San Diego Immigration Court, according to government data published by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. The court ranks 47th in terms of pending cases.
But, when it comes to ICE officers waiting on the fourth floor of the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building in the court's hallways to arrest people after their hearings, San Diego ranks fourth in terms of the number of detentions, according to Detention Resistance.
From May 22, the first day that observers and attorneys reported people being detained at the San Diego court, through the end of August, volunteers with the collective have documented at least 170 arrests there.
In October, volunteers documented more than 100 additional arrests at ICE check-in appointments on the second floor of the federal building as the agency switched its tactics.
This timeline is based on notes made by Detention Resistance volunteers to show how arrests at the federal building have evolved over time.
