News

By Miriam Raftery

View video of full Council hearing (Immigration agenda item begins at 37 minutes.)

January 29, 2025 – Emotions ran high during yesterday’s El Cajon City Council meeting, where a packed chamber heard testimony from 88 members of the public over a proposed over immigration enforcement resolution, followed by a heated Council debate that divided the all-Republican members during a hearing that ran over five hours.

The measure introduced by Mayor Wells, a revision from a version heard two weeks ago, aims to authorize El Cajon police to comply with federal immigration enforcement officials within the limits of state law and the Constitution for the purpose of removing violent criminals.

But the action comes on the same day that the White House Press Secretary indicated that the Trump administration views all undocumented immigrants as “criminals” even though crossing the border itself is a misdemeanor on the first offense, not a felony or violent crime.

Sweeps by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have begun nationwide, picking up many immigrants with no criminal record—including an El Cajon man with no criminal record who was awaiting his asylum hearing when arrested  this week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at his home in front of his five-year-old daughter, Councilman Michelle Metschel revealed in an impassioned speech.

Source: America’s Voice

January 29, 2025 (Washington, DC) — Yesterday delivered several reminders that the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda is sweeping in its scope, harm and indiscriminate nature, viewing all immigrants here without legal status as “criminal” and comfortable in the reality that U.S. citizens and tribal members are among those being targeted and detained in their early enforcement efforts. These fresh reminders, detailed below, follow our assessment yesterday that highlighted the indiscriminate nature of the early Trump administration’s deportation agenda.  

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Opponents of resolution rallied Monday in El Cajon; CBS 8 video screenshot

Read the revised resolution on pages 57-59 from City Council agenda attachments

January 28, 2025 (El Cajon) – A crowd of about 75people opposed to mass deportations held a rally outside El Cajon’s City Hall yesterday to speak out against Mayor Bill Wells’ proposed resolution for the city to fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The City Council will hold a hearing today at 3 p.m. on the controversial measure.

Changes have been made since the last meeting, adding praise for the city’s “vibrant and diverse immigrant communities” but also declaring the city’s intent to “comply with federal immigration law to the legal extent permissible under SB 54 and other applicable laws to remove violent criminals from our community.” SB 54 is a state law which prohibits cities from turning anyone over to federal immigration authorities unless they have been convicted in court of committed certain serious felony crimes, such as murder or rape. 

But President Donald Trump has declared a border emergency and  ordered immigration officials to conduct broad sweeps in immigrant communities. In recent days, people including citizens have been stopped,  asked for documents to prove citizenship, and many have been detained. Trump has stated his goal is to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.—going far beyond the small percentage convicted of felonies.

January 28, 2025 -- As part of our commitment to reflect all voices and views, we include links to a variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

• U.S. puts virtually all foreign aid on 90-day hold, issues 'stop-work' order (NPR)
• DOJ halts legal programs for detained immigrants, cuts off advocates’ access to facilities (Los Angeles Times)
• Trump uses mass firing to remove independent inspectors general at a series of agencies  (AP)
• Vice President Vance casts tie-breaking Senate vote to narrowly confirm Pete Hegseth as defense secretary  (CNN)
• Trump launches crypto meme coin, ballooning net worth ahead of inauguration (Politico)
• Top 5 takeaways from Jack Smith's final report on Trump's Jan. 6 case  (Axios)
• Jen Rubin exits Washington Post, joins Norm Eisen to launch new outlet countering ‘authoritarian threat’ (CNN)
• Supreme Court declines to hear from oil and gas companies trying to block climate change lawsuits (AP)
• Judge bars Rhodes, other Oath Keepers from entering DC without court permission (The Hill)
• Trump was sentenced to ‘unconditional discharge.’ Here’s what that means. (Politico)
• Biden says Equal Rights Amendment is ratified, kicking off expected legal battle as he pushes through final executive actions (CNN)
• Biden Aides Warned Putin as Russia’s Shadow War Threatened Air Disaster (New York Times)
• Biden pardons Fauci and Milley in an effort to guard against potential 'revenge' by Trump (AP)

WORLD

• Palestinians return to Gaza City as mediators look ahead to next stage (Reuters)
• Mexico refuses to accept a U.S. deportation flight (NBC News)
• What to Know About the U.S.-Colombia Clash Over Deportations and Tariffs (Time)
• Danish PM says Europe must ‘stand together’ as Trump threatens Greenland (Guardian)
• Sweden seizes vessel suspected of 'sabotage' after undersea data cable rupture in Baltic Sea (AP)
• 'It starts now': South Korea's President Yoon defiant as police closed in (Reuters)
• Zelensky offers exchange of North Korean soldiers (BBC)
• Gunman shoots dead 2 judges in Iran's capital tied to 1988 mass executions (AP)
• Nigeria is admitted as a partner country of the BRICS bloc (AP)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

January 28, 2025 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Trump funding freeze could disrupt education, housing, disaster aid (Reuters)
• Nonprofits Sue Trump Administration Over Federal Grants Freeze (Democracy Docket)
• How are H5N9 and H5N1 different? What to know after California bird flu outbreak (CBS News)
• FDA recommends pet food companies revisit safety plans amid bird flu outbreak (NBC)  
• CDC staff ordered to cut off communication with WHO  (CBS News)
• Travel, grant and funding cuts ‘stifling’ US health agencies in new Trump era (Guardian)
• Norovirus cases are surging. A doctor explains what to look for (CNN)
• Wall Street Journal labels RFK Jr. ‘dangerous to public health’ ahead of hearings (The Hill)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Meta and Amazon axe diversity initiatives joining US corporate rollback   (BBC)

U.S. probes hacking campaign that targeted climate activists  (NPR)

The internet is forever. Or is it?  (NPR)

Trump says Microsoft in talks to buy TikTok  (BBC)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

Green, Orange and Blue Lines now offer added flexibility and reliability for transit riders

Source:  MTS

January 27, 2025 (San Diego) - San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) is increasing Trolley service for the Green, Blue and Orange lines, offering additional late night and weekend service to provide riders with more options to take transit.

Photo by Craig S. Maxwell today:  Snow in Rancho Cuyamaca State Park

January 27, 2025 (San Diego’s East County) – The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory idue to snow falling across San Diego’s mountain areas, with more snow possible tomorrow.

Areas impacted in the winter weather advisory range from high desert communities such as Campo and Jacumba north through Pine Valley, Descanso, Cuyamaca, Julian, Warner Springs and Mount Palomar.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: screenshot of aerial video by ECM news partner 10 News shows military troops with razor wire at a staging site in the South Bay, as troops prepare to deploy to fortify U.S. - Mexico Border and aid in Trump crackdown on border crossings.

January 26, 2025 (San Diego) – A tough crackdown on immigrants has begun, after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the Southern Border. On Thursday, 1,500 active-duty military troops have been deployed to patrol the borders in San Diego and San Antonio, Texas, with the first soldiers arriving Thursday. 10 News shot footage showing troops, including hundreds from Camp Pendleton, arriving at staging area in Imperial Beach along with concertina razor wire, tents, and military trucks.

Yet according to Associated Press, data doesn’t back up Trump’s contention of an “invasion” of immigrants.  In fact,  AP reports, “arrests for illegal border crossings plummeted more than 80% to about 47,000 in December from an all-time high of 250,000 the same period a year earlier. Arrests fell by about half when Mexican authorities increased enforcement within their own borders a year ago and by about half again when former President Joe Biden introduced severe asylum restrictions in June.”

Immigration sweeps have also begun across the nation, striking fear into immigrant communities as Border Patrol agents in some areas reportedly demanded documentation of everyone stopped, including citizens. Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, told Fox News that ICE arrested over 308 “serious criminals” in the first 24 hours after Trump took office.

One day later, Newsweek reports, Trump’s Acting Secretary of Homeland Security  Benjamine Huffman lifted a long-standing ban, now allowing ICE to target immigrants in sensitive locations including schools, churches and hospitals.

In addition to fortifying the border to block crossings by migrants, including many seeking asylum and fleeing violence or persecution, Trump's administration has disabled the app which formerly allowed asylum-seekers to apply online without crossing the border, effectively blocking all asylum efforts, NPR reports. 

Impact has left refugee aid groups locally and nationally in shock

By Miriam Raftery

Photo via Pentagon:  Troops evacuating Afghans after fall of Kabul

January 26, 2025 (San Diego) – Following an executive order issued by Donald Trump to suspend refugee resettlement,  the Trump administration has cancelled all flights for over 10,000 refugees already approved to resettle in the United States. According to Associated Press. This includes over 1,660 Afghans who helped America’s military as well as relatives of active-duty U.S. military personnel, Reuters reports.

The impacts hit hard in San Diego County, which in recent years has resettled more refugees from around the world than any other county in the U.S. including refugees from Africa, Asia, war-torn Middle-Eastern countries such as Iraq and Syria, Ukraine and other European nations, Haitian refugees fleeing natural disasters, and many more.

“This executive order is a step backwards for America,” the International Rescue Committee states on its website, urging the Trump administration to reverse the order. 

The Trump administration has taken down entirely the State Department's page on the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.