SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — About 200 immigrants who thought they were showing up for annual check-in procedures with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego have been detained and are being kept in the basement of the federal courthouse in downtown.
Attorneys for some of the migrants say their clients showed up to court after receiving letters from ICE asking them to appear for “an official matter.”
They also tell Border Report that ICE has been using this tactic to arrest people for weeks, and then hold them in the building’s basement because there’s no room at the Otay Mesa Detention Center.
Some of the detained migrants have been reportedly deported to Mexico.
According to one lawyer, who wanted to remain anonymous, her clients were kept in rooms that were “freezing” and had to share bathrooms without any privacy.
“No medical care or edible food are being provided,” she said.
The attorney said the immigrants being held do not appear on ICE’s detainee locator database and families are getting no information about their loved ones.
Earlier this week, two congressmen from San Diego, Juan Vargas and Scott Peters, both Democrats, were denied access to the detained migrants and the area where they are being held.
“We’ve had reports to our office that a number of people have been detained and held in the basement of the building far beyond any of the standards that are humane and legally necessary,” Vargas said during a news conference outside the San Diego federal courthouse on Monday.
Vargas said he and Peters are being kept in the dark about the holding area and the number of people being kept there.
“Normally, when you go to a facility you can ask, ‘How many people have you detained? What are their ages? Are there family members?’ They wouldn’t give us any information whatsoever. We did ask those questions,” Vargas said.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin shot back at Vargas and Peters saying “they should get back to Washington, do their jobs, and reopen the government.”
Through a statement, she said, “contrary to claims made by these politicians, the facility was NOT overcapacity and was actually empty after all individuals were transferred to a long-term detention center for their safety because of the ‘No Kings’ protest nearby.”
McLaughlin claims DHS is working to obtain necessary detention space to avoid overcrowding “thanks to President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill and innovative partnerships like Alligator Alcatraz, Cornhusker Clink, Louisiana Lockup, and Speedway Slammer.”
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