ICE is citing courthouse activists

ICE has begun citing volunteers who monitor them at the courthouse — an inevitable result, say activists, of a new set of rules limiting access to federal buildings, first published in summer 2025.

Our Lillian Perlmutter reports how, for months, volunteers from local immigration advocacy organizations stood silently in the hallways of the building, filming ICE arrests, making notes, and assisting migrants in preparation for potential detention so that people would not simply disappear. Now, to be a court observer is to risk a fine, or worse.

“They’ve been pushing more and more lately,” one person said.

We also have an op-ed I thought was particularly interesting today: More San Diegans are leaving the country, but they’re not going far — they’re relocating to Tijuana in greater numbers than ever before. And Tijuana itself is growing, too, taking its rightful place as a truly international city. There is one particular drawback to this new growth, however: housing. The same types of costs that drive Americans out of San Diego are beginning to mount in Tijuana as the new residents push up prices.

But of course those challenges are going to look similar to San Diego’s. After all, as Roberto Quijano gracefully points out in his piece, we’re one region, more alike than we are different, separated only by one thing: A giant wall.

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