Unveiled: Migrants Secretly Housed in San Diego Courthouse Basement by ICE

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In San Diego, approximately 200 immigrants have been unexpectedly detained after attending what they believed were routine check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These individuals are currently being held in the basement of the federal courthouse located downtown.

Legal representatives for some of these migrants have indicated that their clients appeared in court following official summons from ICE, which instructed them to attend for “an official matter.”

According to these attorneys, ICE has been employing this strategy for several weeks, capturing individuals and holding them in the courthouse basement due to a lack of available space at the Otay Mesa Detention Center.

Reports suggest that some of those detained have since been deported back to Mexico.

In related news, the Texas Attorney General’s Office recently made headlines by arresting 35 immigrants, emphasizing a broader stance that “every illegal must be found, detained, and deported.”

“No medical care or edible food are being provided,” she said.

The attorney said the immigrants being held do not appear on ICE’s detainee locator database and families are getting no information about their loved ones.

Earlier this week, two congressmen from San Diego, Juan Vargas and Scott Peters, both Democrats, were denied access to the detained migrants and the area where they are being held.

“We’ve had reports to our office that a number of people have been detained and held in the basement of the building far beyond any of the standards that are humane and legally necessary,” Vargas said during a news conference outside the San Diego federal courthouse on Monday.

Vargas said he and Peters are being kept in the dark about the holding area and the number of people being kept there.

“Normally, when you go to a facility you can ask, ‘How many people have you detained? What are their ages? Are there family members?’ They wouldn’t give us any information whatsoever. We did ask those questions,” Vargas said.

Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin shot back at Vargas and Peters saying “they should get back to Washington, do their jobs, and reopen the government.”

Through a statement, she said, “contrary to claims made by these politicians, the facility was NOT overcapacity and was actually empty after all individuals were transferred to a long-term detention center for their safety because of the ‘No Kings’ protest nearby.”

McLaughlin claims DHS is working to obtain necessary detention space to avoid overcrowding “thanks to President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill and innovative partnerships like Alligator Alcatraz, Cornhusker Clink, Louisiana Lockup, and Speedway Slammer.”