Jocelyn Ahlers was standing in the hallway of San Diego’s federal building last week, observing people walk in and out of courtrooms and offices. Federal immigration agents gave her a citation for $280.
The agents, who wore bulletproof vests that said DHS POLICE, listed “non-compliance” as the reason for Ahlers’ reprimand. “They said, ‘You’re not allowed to be here, you’re loitering,’” Ahlers said.Activists say the fines are an inevitable result of a new set of rules limiting access to federal buildings, first published in summer 2025, that they feared would be used to limit their work. The volunteers also see the rules as the latest escalation of ICE efforts to surveil and detain Americans who disagree with the agency’s actions.
Federal agents issued citations to activists, accusing them of loitering, in the hallways of San Diego’s immigration court building in February. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Times of San Diego)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. They began this work over the summer in response to ICE arrests of migrants outside court hearings and at routine check-in appointments, part of the Trump administration’s larger national immigration crackdown.
But on Thursday, federal agents served four volunteers at the federal building with citations, saying it was illegal for them to stand in the hallway without having formal business there. The agents also asked a priest, the Rev. Hung Nguyen, from the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, to leave.
On Friday, two others received citations, according to local volunteers.
In June, the Department of Homeland Security published the new regulations for behavior on federal property that would go into effect in November. Members of the public would no longer be allowed to hand out flyers or film outside immigration courts without the permission of DHS officials. Also, observers would be required to follow any directions posted on signs. A large, white sign with paragraphs of fine print was installed outside the lobby of the building that said “no loitering!”
It was only a matter of time, Ahlers said, before ICE agents at the building would take action against the volunteers. “They’ve been pushing more and more lately,” she said. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions from Times of San Diego about why the citations had been issued and whether they plan to issue more.
While the people who received the citations plan to contest them in court, they know other anti-activist efforts have been even more aggressive.
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Arrests, surveillance, use of force
In July, three local ICE observers were arrested, and two of them were charged with assault. Last month, court documents obtained by Daylight San Diego revealed that the Department of Homeland Security is investigating several local organizers in San Diego who follow ICE vehicles and film arrests.
In the past year, ICE agents have similarly blocked activists from accessing public immigration courtrooms in Kansas City, Missouri, Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco. But this is just one tactic: in addition to these rules, ICE agents have also employed tear gas, physical force, surveillance and firearms against citizen observers — most significantly with federal agents fatally shooting two activists in Minneapolis.
According to Ahlers and other volunteers, ICE agents at the building took photos of numerous people in the hallway and told them their pictures would be “going in the database.”
“It concerns me that they have my name and number,” Ahlers said. “They don’t hesitate to make it clear that they’ll use that information.”
After ICE agents told protesters in Maine that their names would be added to a database, Todd Lyons, acting director for ICE, said in a congressional hearing, “I can assure you that there is no database that’s tracking United States citizens.”
In January, White House Border Czar Tom Homan said in an interview on Fox News that he was advocating for the creation of a federal database of people arrested during anti-ICE protests. “We’re going to make them famous. We’re going to put their faces on TV. We’re going to let their employers, and their neighborhoods, and their schools know who these people are,” he said.
But whether or not a database exists, ICE is already using technology meant to locate undocumented people on U.S. citizens who oppose their raids. In Minneapolis, ICE agents participating in an immigration crackdown in January used facial recognition technology to identify protesters following their vehicles. In the fall, ICE reactivated a contract for hacking technologies that allow the agency to take control of a cellphone and view its messages, using only the phone number. ICE has also made sweeping purchases of location data belonging to citizens and non-citizens alike, despite regulations requiring a warrant to request this information from phone companies.
According to legal experts, the First Amendment protects any protester’s right to film federal agents, and should the federal government publish a list of protesters, it could constitute an illegal threat.
Change of course in San Diego
For now, the federal building is eerily empty, a change for local groups such as Detention Resistance, FAITH and others.
Federal agents issued citations to activists, accusing them of loitering, in the hallways of San Diego’s immigration court building in February. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Times of San Diego)“FAITH will continue, but our presence, for now, has been restricted by the new no loitering rule that was enforced overnight without adequate warning,” Nguyen told Times of San Diego after the citations.
Ahlers and the other volunteers who received citations at the court are considering legal action against DHS that could restore the groups’ access to the building. But Ahlers is adamant that the migrants involved are the ones truly suffering with the volunteers gone.
In October, a Times of San Diego investigation found that migrants were held for days on end in the basement of the federal building, in cells with open toilets and mats on the floor, without adequate access to medical care.
“It makes me wonder what they [ICE agents] have planned,” Ahlers said. “I was lucky, I was able to walk out of that building. People disappear if there’s no one watching.”
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