EL CAJON CITY COUNCIL APPROVES ALLOWING POLICE TO COOPERATE WITH ICE, REVERSING PREVIOUS ACTION

Issue prompts drive to recall Councilman Phil Ortiz

By Alex Schorr and Miriam Raftery

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Photo, left:  Resolution opponents hold up sign denouncing hate and likening ICE roundups to “Gestapo” tactics

February 14, 2025 (El Cajon) – El Cajon’s City Council on Tuesday passed a controversial resolution allowing the city’s police to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and hand over any undocumented who has been convicted of a violent crime, as well as immigrants merely accused of a crime.  The measure was introduced by Mayor Bill Wells, with backing of Councilmember Phil Ortiz and amendments by Councilman Steve Goble.

The meeting was contentious, sparked by numerous emotional outbursts, threats to recall Councilmember Ortiz for supporting the resolution, and playing of phone threats made against Councilmembers who voted against the measure previously.

Just two weeks ago, the Council rejected a similar proposal by a 3-2 vote, but reversed that action on Wednesday after Councilmember Goble switched sides.

“We’re not a sanctuary city,” said Goble, adding that the city should not hinder federal immigration authorities.  He voiced support for deporting violent criminals, then revealed that he and Mayor Bill Wells held a meeting in December with Tom Homan, Pres Donald Trump’s border czar, on the issue.

California’s SB 54 law prohibits local law enforcement officers from participating in immigration sweeps and allows officers to only turn over undocumented immigrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if they have been convicted of certain serious felony crimes and if there is a judicial warrant.  But the Trump administration is rounding up many immigrants who have not been convicted of crimes. Both the federal and state government have threatened legal actions against cities that comply or defy SB 54. Ultimately, Goble said he wants to see SB 54 amended to allow more cooperation between police and ICE.

The revised resolution includes several amendments, including one proposed by Goble asking the U.S. Attorney General to indemnify  El Cajon and defend its police officers against state challenges over immigration actions.  “I don’t want this conflict to punish our police officers,” said Goble, who insisted that the resolution is for the “sole purpose of getting rid of serious and violent criminals and to protect the people of El Cajon.”

But the resolution allows far more than that in authorizing police to handover people merely accused of a crime to ICE for deportation, including to foreign prisons or the infamous Guantanamo Bay “Gitmo” prison without any opportunity for due process or a trial. 

In public comments, 46 speakers addressed the Council in heated testimony on both sides. Repeatedly, participants caused vocal disturbances, booed or cheered, and several made racially charged remarks. Several times, Mayor Wells called brief recesses due to disruptions, at one point threatening to “move this upstairs and leave you all out of it,” with only press allowed to be present.

Patricia Mondragon (photo, right), regional and policy manager for Alliance San Diego, said Trump’s promise to remove only violent criminals is “a lie. In city after city, nonoffenders are being detained and  living in fear.”  Mondragon warned that even some immigrants with legal status, such as those who lawfully requested asylum and are awaiting hearings, are being swept up by ICE.

Mondragon said the resolution’s backers have mischaracterized numbers provided by ICE last year, which suggested that 640,000 undocumented criminals in the U.S. are not detained. In fact, about a third of those have not been convicted of any crime.  Of those convicted, many or perhaps most are already in prisons. That data spans decades, so some of those individuals may have died or left the U.S. on their own.

She believes Mayor Wells is “setting the city up as a litigant to challenge existing state law” and “asking the Attorney General for permission to violate state law.”

Many speakers characterized the resolution as racist and voiced fears that people with brown skin will face racial profiling.

Dr. Sergio Conte (photo, left) said he loves living in El Cajon, which has over 70 ethnic communities. He spoke of enjoying ethnic restaurants, walking his dog in the park among people of many cultures, and watching children from Afghanistan playing cricket.  “We never had these problems until the Mayor divided us,” he said. Now we are white against brown people...Why?  In 116 years we never had one councilmember to represent our community,” he said, noting that 35% of El Cajon voters are of Spanish heritage.

Then he directed his outrage at Councilmember Phil Ortiz—and issued a recall election threat. “We are going to recall you in 90 days, on March 10,” he told Ortiz, “because you were elected by the Latino community and you hate us...We are not criminals.”  Ortiz represents a heavily  Hispanic district; state law allows recall of an official 90 days after their current term of office begins.

But Mary Davis (photo, right) sees the resolution as “standing up for law and order.” She insists that isn’t racist. While opponents spoke of “kids in cages” in detention camps, Davis spoke of “kids in coffins.” She held up a photo of three children whom she said were killed in Sacramento by an undocumented father after he was arrested for a violent offense, then released.

Closer to home, RAD movement cofounder Sharie Finn says her child was raped and trafficked by an “illegal immigrant who is sitting in prison right now” but was not deported. She said the RAD movement’s volunteers have rescued children being trafficked locally. Finn supports the resolution because “this is one step to help our officers in getting violent offenders off the streets, period.”

Several speakers referenced the Lincoln-Reily act just passed by Congress and signed by President Trump.  It mandates federal detention of immigrants accused of even non-violent crimes such as theft. 

“We’re talking about sending El Cajon residents to foreign concentration camps without a trial,” one woman said, noting that a notorious prison in El Salvador, which has offered to take in deportees, has had people die of dehydration.

Others predicted the resolution would mire the city in costly litigation.  Lawsuits potentially be filed by the state of California as well as immigrant rights and civil rights organizations, since the resolution could be challenged as unconstitutional for violating due process and a right for accused persons to have a speedy trial, since the Constitution applies to everyone in the U.S, regardless of citizenship statues.

Some supporters lobbed inflammatory statements. One woman called for all undocumented immigrants to be deported, adding, “Anybody up here who would like to have a sanctuary city should be arrested...Anybody that wants to protest and burn our flag should be arrested also.”

Some opponents likened ICE tactics to fascism or Nazism. Others quoted Bible verses to support positions on both sides.

Amy Reichert from Restore San Diego (photo, right)  spoke in support of the resolution, stating, “This should not be a debate. We should not be called anti-Christian or racist.”

The final speaker, Julianne, told the Council that in 1931, “Mexicans were rounded up from hospitals, from cities, from their homes....they were summarily put in boxcars and trucked to Mexico....One of them was my grandfather. He was taken out of the hospital and sent to Mexico City; he was not from Mexico City...My grandmother despairingly went after him with my mother and my aunt; both were born here in the United States” and remained in Mexico until 1965.

She offered a chilling warning about “people who do not learn history and do not remember history. As you can see, it will be done again—and we need to learn from that.”

After the public speakers, Councilmembers held a discussion.

Councilman Gary Kendrick had the City Attorney clarify that SB 54 was challenged in federal court in 2017, but was upheld as constitutional by atrial court and by the 9^th circuit court, with the Supreme Court allowing the law to stand without hearing it, making “SB 54 the law of the land,” Kendrick noted.

He then asked City Manager Graham Mitchell to dispel misinformation circulating online claiming that El Cajon is a sanctuary city. Mtichell made clear,  “Not once in the nearly 25 years that I’ve been city attorney has the Council adopted a resolution, ordinance, or anything else that the city is a sancturay city.”

Kendrick asked if an officer violates SB 54, can the state remove their certification to serve as a police officer in California?  The City Manager looked up state law and later confirmed that while SB54 doesn’t expressly require decertification,  there are provisions that if an officer “violates state law or demonstrates bias, the state can take away your certification.”

Kendrick made clear, ”I don’t want to put our police officers in jeopardy or make it difficult to do their job.”  He noted that the police need people willing to cooperate as witnesses and report crimes,  not be afraid of police. As a Sunday school teacher, he voiced concern over ICE now being allowed to enter churches, schools and hospitals, adding that if people are afraid to go to clinics or hospitals for treatments or vaccines, diseases such as strep throat, measles or chicken pox could spread.  “This is hurting our community,” he said. 

He noted that no other local cities have passed such a measure, and only one other city of 480 in California has done so.” Let’s see how all this works out through the courts,” he said, voicing concern over costly lawsuits.

 Kendrick also condemned callers who left “profane” and “disgusting” messages on his voice mail at City Hall, the played several of them as examples.

The majority of you are traitors to this country and all your information is public,” one caller threated.  Another demanded after the last meeting, “Why did you vote no to get rid of all the dirty, stinking illegal aliens?” One message called him a “retarded, fat piece of s**t.”  Yet another denounced Kendrick’s mother, who lived in Czechoslovakia when the Nazis took her Jewish boss, who was never seen again.  “Goddamn you to f**ing hell and your mother is a f***ing whore,” the caller ranted.

Kendrick indicated that Councilmember Michelle Metschel received similar messages after voting against the resolution. Both say they support deporting convicted violent criminals as SB 54 allows.

“I am disgusted at such an attack on the democratic process through these attempts at intimidation and the threats that are completely against American democracy,” Kendrick said, drawing a standing ovation (photo,left)

Councilmember Metschel used her time to push back against a woman who forwarded an email that spread on the internet, in which Metschel apologized for becoming emotional in what she termed “bad behavior” at the last meeting, though other speakers applauded her for taking a strong stand.   In an ironic tone, she thanked those who spread the message and “making sure the public knew a public official could be human and not jaded.”

Metschel then confronted Amy Reichert over her statements repeatedly claiming El Cajon voted to “stay a sanctuary city” including on an Instagram post and an email to supporters.  Reichert leaped out of her seat in the audience, shouting repeatedly at Metschel in an angry outburst that prompted calls for her removal. Instead, the Mayor announced a 10-minute recess for “cooler heads” to prevail.

Councilman Ortiz (photo, left) doubled down on his stance in favor of the resolution. “I want violent criminals removed and I have big problems with SB 54,” he said.  He noted that many crimes are not included on the list of those for which immigrants can be handed over to ICE, ranging from shoplifting and theft to disorderly conduct, forgery, fraud, drug offenses and arson.

“I’m not going to be pressured or bullied or shouted into saying that this resolution is something that it’s not,” he said. Ortiz called generalizations on both sides “crazy” such as “every immigrant is a criminal” as well as accusations that “I hate Mexicans.”  That’s not true.”

Councilman Goble, who cast the swing vote, insisted that it’s about “public safety” but declined to acknowledge the serious concerns raised over potentially innocent people being deported without a trial or conviction.  “I will support this resolution because I authored a resolution to support the backs of our police officers who have our backs,”he said, drawing a chorus of both cheers and jeers from the audience.

Mayor Wells made clear that he supports deportation without convictions in court, calling the resolution “a no brainer.  We arrest someone for doing something bad who does not belong in this country, we should be able to do anything we can to get them out of this country.”  Mayor Wells noted that the majority of El Cajon voters voted for Trump and wanted change. 

He then denounced vocal opponents of the resolution as “completely disingenuous” adding, “People just tuned you out, because they know that you are liars.”

Wells made a motion to approve the resolution, which was seconded by Ortiz. The measure passed 3-2, with Metschel and Kendrick opposed.

The audience erupted into a mixture of gasps, jeers, and cheers, with some chanting, “Recall Phil.” 

Latinos in Accion has now launched a website, https://www.recallphilortiz.com/, in Spanish and English.