An ICE surge seemingly kicked off in the region this past Monday.
L.A. TACO tracked at least 45 people detained across Southern California, with a huge emphasis on Santa Maria and San Diego, as well as a few in Los Angeles, at United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Application Support Centers and local jails.
In a response posted on X on September 26, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated, “In an effort to protect American citizens, ICE has initiated a nationwide public safety surge in sanctuary cities where our brave officers will be targeting criminal illegal aliens—many released from jails by sanctuary politicians—including murderers, rapists, child predators, and gang members.”
No definitive statement or press release was issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or DHS, specifying that Los Angeles will be the target of an immigration enforcement surge.
However, the Department of Justice is seeking to enlist military lawyers to act as temporary prosecutors for “law enforcement surges” in three cities—Manhattan, Sacramento, and Los Angeles, according to a Defense Department email sent by a Marine Corps major and reviewed by Bloomberg Law.
However, the Department of Justice is seeking to enlist military lawyers to act as temporary prosecutors for “law enforcement surges” in three cities—Manhattan, Sacramento, and Los Angeles.
These prosecutor roles were advertised to active and reserve officers of any rank to serve as special assistant U.S. attorneys for the Southern District of New York, the Eastern District of California, and the Central District of California. The email detailed a caseload covering assaults, threats, theft, vandalism, and other crimes.
According to Bloomberg, the email says these prosecutor positions are set to begin on October 13 for 179-day terms to support areas alongside a surge in federal law enforcement efforts, adding, "Responsibilities are expected to be immigration related.”
Earlier this year, military lawyers assumed temporary positions as special assistant U.S. attorneys in the Minneapolis district amidst mass resignations in the midst of Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota.
While these new prosecutor positions are planned to start mid-October and end around early to mid-April, ICE is also beginning a new hiring spree, aiming to hire 5,000 new employees by the end of 2026. Most of these new hires are expected to be deportation officers, increasing the agency’s workforce by 17%.
While these new prosecutor positions are planned to start mid-October and end around early to mid-April, ICE is also beginning a new hiring spree, aiming to hire 5,000 new employees by the end of 2026.
Last year, ICE increased its workforce by about 8,000 agents, drawing intense criticism from even within the agency for having limited or no initial vetting. Former ICE attorney and academy trainer Ryan Schwank resigned on February 13 and testified before lawmakers that the agency's deportation officer training program was “deficient, defective, and broken.”
This recent expansion comes after ICE began firing recruits, citing red flags it should have noticed earlier. These terminations even led to the suicide of 38-year-old former deportation officer Joseph Moore, who shot and killed himself last month while parked outside of the Philadelphia ICE/ERO field office after losing his job with ICE.
Across the United States, immigration enforcement has surged in specific communities even after the large-scale Border Patrol operations spearheaded by Gregory Bovino, Border Patrol’s former Commander-at-Large.
ICE periodically posts press releases about these surges and operations after they end, including a summer-long operation near Lake Lewisville in Texas, a five-day “Operation Safe Community-Indiana” that led to over 400 detainments across the state in August and September, and a week-long operation in Florida that led to over 500 detainments in August.
In Pennsylvania, ICE is even planning on preparing vans to act as “mobile facilities” to hold immigrants during their operation, to spare “officers the drive back to an office and keep them making arrests,” according to reporting by Project Salt Box.
While no directive has been posted by DHS or ICE regarding the extent of this incoming “surge” in Los Angeles, L.A. communities organized last year as masked ICE and Border Patrol agents conducted roving raids across the county and will continue to do so.
L.A. TACO reached out to the Central District of California, the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, and ERO Los Angeles for comment. We have yet to receive a response at the time of this story’s publication.
