ICE launches California immigration crackdown. Newsom calls it ‘campaign of fear’ By Darrell Smith October 8, 2026 12:20 PM

The Trump administration is launching waves of ICE immigration operations across California over the next 45 days, the Washington Examiner reported this week.

Gov. Gavin Newsom blasted the statewide raids weeks before November’s midterm elections as a “campaign of fear.” Dubbed internally as “Operation Safe California,” the Examiner reported, the enforcement began several days ago in the San Diego area, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials ordering its field agents to arrest all immigrants they meet, criminal history or not.

The operation has not been publicly announced, but was met with fiery reaction from Newsom. He accused the White House of stoking fear in the state’s immigrant communities as millions of Californians prepare to head to the polls.

According to the Examinet, an unnamed source told the newspaper that ICE officers were “told to go after anybody, they can pick up anybody.”

Immigrant rights groups in Northern and Central California have reported increased sightings of ICE activity. On Monday, a father was arrested at a Santa Maria community college while dropping off his daughter for her freshman year. “This is exactly what I warned would happen last year. Trump is using mass deportations to TERRORIZE diverse communities out of legally voting — ordering his secret police to ‘go after everybody,’” Newsom posted on X, in apparent reference to the government crackdown. “Donald, your campaign of fear will FAIL. The American people will NOT be intimidated!”

Sources told the Examiner that officers in San Diego, and others in Los Angeles and San Francisco, would move through Los Angeles and north to San Francisco by November. The Sacramento group NorCal Resist earlier Thursday cited a “heavier than normal ICE presence in our region today,” in posts to social media.

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article317544230.html#storylink=cpy