Federal agents have opened a 45-day immigration enforcement surge across California that directs officers to arrest all illegal immigrants they meet, undercutting the sanctuary state's long resistance to interior removals.
Washington Examiner reporting shows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began the unannounced effort several days ago in and around San Diego, the border city that sits next to Mexico. Internally the drive is called Operation Safe California. It is set to run at least a month and a half.
ICE leadership has instructed officers to take into custody every illegal immigrant they encounter, whether or not the person has a criminal record. The operation reaches beyond the “worst of the worst” to include noncriminal illegal immigrants as well.
California’s sanctuary rules have long limited local cooperation with federal immigration authorities. That policy choice now faces a sustained federal push that does not wait for jailhouse handoffs.
Related enforcement in the state has already produced concrete results. The New York Post reported that ICE arrested 118 illegal immigrants during a six-day surge in central California. The group included convicted pedophiles, sex offenders, burglars, and domestic abusers.
DHS officials described the targets as the “worst of the worst” criminals present in the country illegally. Examples included registered sex offenders convicted of lewd acts with children under 14. Separate figures show more than 10,000 illegal immigrants have been arrested in Los Angeles since June under Trump administration operations.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated the problem in plain terms:
"Criminal illegal aliens flock to California because they know Governor Newsom and his fellow sanctuary politicians will allow them to terrorize innocent American families. In 2026, our law enforcement will continue to do what Gavin Newsom refused to do: make California safe again."
Those sanctuary choices sit alongside other federal pressure on the governor, including a federal criminal probe into his privately funded travel and donor ties.
Los Angeles Field Office Director Thomas Giles told Fox News that California sanctuary policies block the safer method of taking custody at local jails. Officers must instead make community arrests that expose both agents and bystanders to greater risk.
Giles said the change is stark:
"The sanctuary policies definitely impact our operations in terms of it'd be a lot easier for us to have that transfer of custody in a secure environment... putting our officers at risk and other community members at risk."
He added that before the sanctuary rules took hold, agents “were picking up hundreds of people a day at the local jails.” Now local law enforcement “can't even work with us,” which he called “a big, huge public safety threat.”
One concrete case involved 20-year-old Honduran national Julio Alberto Aroca-Rodriguez. He was subject to a 2019 removal order and had recently been arrested for assault with a baseball bat. Local authorities released him despite an ICE detainer request. In a separate Los Angeles operation, agents arrested six illegal immigrants, including one convicted of assault with a baseball bat and another with multiple illegal re-entries. Officers later relocated after anti-ICE crowds formed.
The same pattern of friction with state leadership appears in other federal actions, such as when Newsom called a Medicaid funding freeze “pure politics” while federal officials demanded fraud documentation.
Operation Safe California makes the federal posture explicit. Officers are not limited to those already convicted of serious crimes. They are directed to arrest every illegal immigrant they meet during the multi-week effort that started near the border and extends across the state.
No public announcement accompanied the launch. No official arrest totals, staffing numbers, or named leadership orders have been released. The direction comes from ICE leadership and was described by sources familiar with the plan.
That quieter approach still collides with a state government that has spent years limiting cooperation. The political cost is visible in other arenas as well; Newsom’s 2028 presidential odds have cratered to an all-time low while federal enforcement continues.
Additional scrutiny has followed the governor’s orbit. He hired Hunter Biden’s former defense lawyer as federal probes closed in on his family, and the FEC has separately demanded answers from his Campaign for Democracy PAC over travel spending.
Taxpayers and lawful residents are left living with the results of policies that release criminal illegal immigrants back into communities and force federal officers onto city streets. Operation Safe California is the direct federal answer: arrest those who are here illegally, criminal record or not, for the next month and a half and beyond.
Sanctuary rules protected the wrong people for too long; federal agents are finally putting public safety first.