Protecting our immigrant neighbors in La Mesa, California
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
I’m a board member-at-large of the La Mesa-Foothills Democratic Club. I wrote this up for the club newsletter:
The City of La Mesa and the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District are protecting immigrants. At our general meeting on February 5, we heard details from City Council Member Lauren Cazares and school trustee Brianna Coston.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has launched raids in San Diego County since the inauguration, including one in Escondido, Cazares said. ICE had not come to La Mesa at the time of our meeting — not yet — although there have been many rumors of ICE sightings. I checked in with Cazares over the weekend, and she said ICE still hasn’t put in an appearance in La Mesa, to her knowledge.
The City of La Mesa has not adopted a sanctuary city policy but follows California Senate Bill 54 protecting immigrants. The city adopted instructions for the La Mesa Police Department in 2017. Those instructions, amended in 2018, are still current, Cazares said.
Cazares read a section of the instructions on prohibited activity and asked that if any police officer is seen violating those policies, they should be reported to the La Mesa Police Department — although she noted there had been no violations to date that she was aware of. “There is a way for you to ensure that it is taken care of and nipped in the bud immediately,” she said.
She added, “Our chief takes the safety of La Mesans, regardless of immigration status, extremely seriously.”
The city has a police oversight board that makes an independent audit of complaints to determine if wrongdoing was done.
Ensuring adherence to the policy protecting immigrants is “on all of us in La Mesa, not just on the City Council, to ensure that it’s taken care of,” Cazares said.
Cazares provided an expansive list of prohibited police activities, including any official inquiry about a person’s immigration status; using immigration enforcement as a basis to initiate contact, detain or arrest any individual; detaining an individual based on a hold request from an immigration agency, including ICE; collecting information about a person’s immigration status, even on arrest; providing information to immigration authorities regarding a person’s release date, and more.
Republicans spreading confusion
La Mesa Republicans are spreading misinformation on Facebook about the city’s immigration policy, Cazares said. “I’m not talking about elected officials. I’m talking about people who like to tweet and go on Facebook and rant, saying the city of La Mesa is going to get sued by the federal government because of our sanctuary city status,” she said. “The city cannot be sued by the federal government because we do not have a sanctuary city policy.” And since the city’s policy went into effect in 2017, not a single judge has ruled against the city on any level. However, she noted that if California’s SB54 is brought before the current Supreme Court, that could change.
She appealed to white La Mesans to speak out on behalf of Black and brown Americans and immigrants. “It’s important that you’re able to stand up for us,” she said.
The La Mesa-Spring Valley School District is taking similar steps to protect immigrants, Coston, the school trustee, said. Contrary to rumors, ICE has not been on Spring Valley school campuses. “Yet, as Lauren said, I’m sure that will change in the future,” she said.
The district is doing a series of “Immigration: Know Your Rights” webinars in English, Spanish, Haitian-Creole, Arabic, Russian and Dari — find information here.
She added, “All children in the United States have a Constitutional right to equal access to free public education, regardless of their immigration status and regardless of the immigration status of the student’s parents or guardians,” she said. “That’s something that our school district takes very seriously. That’s something that I know a lot of the school districts in our area take very seriously.”
ICE is not supposed to go on school campuses, though President Trump has tried to remove those barriers, Coston said.
On enrollment, students or their families need to prove residency, typically with a utility bill. They need to show where the child is born, most commonly done with a birth certificate, but it can also be done with a parental affidavit. “All of our information is confidential. We do not give that information out to anyone,” Coston said. That information can’t even be given out for a subpoena. The board adopted a policy in 2018 to match state policies protecting immigrants.
ICE needs warrants to access schools
For ICE to access campus, they must show proof of a judicial warrant signed by a judge. The district immediately lets the board know and needs to contact legal counsel to validate the warrant before divulging information. “They are a guest on our campus. They have to sign in at the front office. They have to provide all sorts of information – their badge number and contact information. They will be escorted by people directly to wherever they need to be on campus."
She added, “But this is only if they have a valid judicial warrant. We do not let people onto our campus that should not be on our campus.”
Warrants need to specify who they are looking for and why. They can’t just be for general fishing expeditions on black and brown people, Coston said.
Following a bond measure in 2020, the schools installed security measures to protect against gun violence, and now all schools have a single point of entry and fences surrounding campuses. “ICE could not just accidentally wander onto a campus,” she said. “They have to go through the front door. And it isn’t unlocked. You have to get buzzed into our campus now.”
There are a lot of fake warrants floating around. But people can tap legal resources in the county to see copies of real warrants and fake warrants to learn to tell the difference, Cazares said. “Now is the time to get educated on that for all of us, not just folks who might have potential immigration issues, because often those of us who can read and write are the ones that are going to be helping people,” Cazares said.
She continued,, “My Dad has birthright citizenship. He is completely and totally functionally illiterate in English and Spanish because he graduated high school before they had ESL [English as a Second Language]. He’s very smart. He can speak English and Spanish perfectly fine.”
She continued, “Do you think someone like my Dad would be able to discern the difference between a real [warrant] and a fake one? I guarantee he would not.”
Schools have been training their whole staff, not just teachers, in immigration policies, Coston said.
Cazares also talked about several immigration bills pending in the state legislature. One is Assembly Bill 18, the California Secure Borders Act of 2025. It’s a “crazy bill,” but fortunately, it’s authored by Carl DeMaio, Cazares said. Even Republicans don’t like DeMaio, so the bill is “dead on arrival,” she said. With other Republican support, the bill might have been more viable.
On the other hand, a second bill, Senate Bill 48, would enact protections statewide similar to those in the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, Cazares said. And Assembly Bill 15 would limit the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from cooperating with immigration authorities.
Mitch Wagner is a member at large of the La Mesa-Foothills Democratic Club Board. He lives in La Mesa, a short walk from Lake Murray, with his wife, dog and cats. Contact Mitch at mitch@mitchwagner.com.