Pedro Rios

Graciela Asunción Gómez Hernández died while crossing into the US in Sept 2025. Her body wasn't found until Oct.
Today I accompanied volunteers who installed a cross in her memory.
The double-layered border walls are visible nearby. In the distance, the dew evaporates from Tijuana's urban landscape.

Opinion | New ICE leadership brings more violence, no accountability and zero oversight If Border Patrol leaders take over ICE, it's likely both agencies will continue avoiding repercussions for violence and deaths in custody.

In my latest piece, I look at the implications of Border Patrol usurping top command posts in ICE leadership...
"we can expect an expansion of egregious abuses — and a lack of accountability, opaqueness, and zero oversight."

Read more here @calmatters.org
calmatters.org/commentary/2...

Correct, & why I insisted since Bovino's move in Kern County in Jan that folks should be precise about differentiating which agency is which in the DHS matrix involved in immigration raids. It helps to understand their strategies & to hold them accountable, even though doing so is nearly impossible.

On Halloween and every other day of the year, which side are you on?
the working class or billionaires?

Photo from protest at San Diego Federal Building, where ICE abducts migrants attending ICE check-ins & court hearings, & where ICE detains people at the building's basement & denies it does this.

The Trump regime is purging ICE officials in offices in 5 major US cities & will fill some of those top posts with senior Border Patrol agents who will take over interior immigration enforcement in those regions.

The regime is going for tried and tested cruelty.
www.msn.com/en-us/news/u...

"Consider choosing violence"
An ICE agent with a curious uniform, casually and comfortably promoting violence while working at the San Diego federal building.

Feds in military gear flood downtown Chicago; top border chief says people arrested based on ‘how they look’ The immigration agents were spotted making arrests in downtown Chicago and River North neighborhood early Sunday.

Bovino says his agents arrest people in Chicago based on "how they look."

Same goes for how people identify fascists, the people can tell who they are based on how they look (especially when dressed in militarized Border Patrol threads).

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Supreme Court ruling subjects California to what border communities have endured for generations | Opinion San Diego's border communities have long experienced racial profiling, the kind a Supreme Court ruling recently OK'd for immigration agents.

With the Supreme Court green-lighting racial profiling for immigration raids, it's a reality we know too well in the borderlands. With appreciation to all who contributed to this piece, here is my recent @calmatters.org commentary on the ruling:
calmatters.org/commentary/2...

Check out this much-needed conversation if you're in San Diego on Saturday... register below.

Safety in Unity 2025 Conference An annual conference about creating safety in our city through community alliance and solidarity

Sessions on surveillance and the working class fight with Satomi Rash-Zeigler and Lilly Irani, on surveillance and immigration with Homayra Yusufi (@panasd.org) and Pedro Rios (@pedroconsafos.bsky.social)

RSVP! trst.fyi/su25

San Diego protested Palantir and its dangerous and deadly surveillance technologies that track everyday people and cause untold human suffering while prioritizing profits for billionaires. Sharing four photos from the event, which was part of a national day of action against Palantir.

"[Noem] touted the height of the wall as well as its depth as ways to deter people seeking to go over or under the walls."

Now T's preposterous idea is to paint it black "to make the metal hotter."

But the paint will peel, people will climb at night & continue to fall with life-altering injuries.

Join in tonight if you have time to spare. It will be an invigorating conversation.

Erasure of indigenous people is at the core of this country’s genocidal history, and the ideological premise for its neo-fascist bent.

They are extremely comfortable.

Tortured by the Taliban, Locked Up in the U.S. The increasingly opaque path for protection adopted by Trump leaves those who fled their homeland with little hope.

When Mohamad showed evidence about how the Taliban had tortured him, a U.S. official found him credible.

But the increasingly opaque path for asylum protection adopted by Trump leaves those who fled their homeland with little hope.

By @bgirledukate.bsky.social

capitalandmain.com/tortured-by-...

VIDEO: 'Legal observer' handcuffed by ICE in hallway of federal courthouse - NewsBreak The best local & breaking news source in the US, featuring local weather, alerts, deals, events and more.

ICE holds a volunteer in San Diego for 8 hours in a "detention investigation" after they fabricate an accusation of assault.

Border and Immigration-Related Spending in the Reconciliation Bill (Items over $100 million) Item House Bill (H.R. 1) Senate Bill Approximate total $165.47 billion $171.39 billion

The bill before the Senate today will throw 12 million Americans off health insurance (CBO estimate).

Cutting taxes for the wealthiest leaves no money for that.

But apparently, there's money for this:

Shameful. This is Border Patrol taking their tactics to the interior. A rogue agency for over 100 years, sees no problem with putting babies in harm’s way. If only Republicans AND Democrats hadn’t funded them for decades. Now they have free reign.

Costa Rican court orders government to free migrants who were deported by US About 200 people were brought to the country in February under an agreement with the Trump administration

Costa Rican court orders government to free migrants who were deported by US

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

For more investigations like this and if you have tips to share please follow my colleague @schwellenbach.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/pabl...

Outrageous seems too nice at this point.

Yes, at Whiskey 8. I've mostly seen them in plainclothes. In uniform when they are riding in their tanks.

My guess is that this is BORTAC. Other videos had them coming in hot after people confronted Border Patrol in similar locations.

He Wanted to Record a TikTok, But Ended up in Immigration Detention A Chinese college student spent nearly a month in immigration detention in San Diego under the suspicion of human trafficking. He says it was all a misunderstanding.

Quite a story, & now that Trump has made DHS investigative bodies (CRCL & OIDO) anemic or nonexistent, complaints addressing these types of systemic abuses have nowhere to go.
To be fair, CRCL & OIDO often were black holes, but sometimes the processes helped air out the complaints & forced a review.

Advocates say an Afghan refugee was detained at San Diego immigration court AfghanEvac said the man had lawful parole in the U.S. and was detained when he went for his first immigration hearing.

Last week, ICE arrested Sayed, an Afghan refugee, after a DHS attorney asked an immigration judge to dismiss his case.
Sayed escaped Afghanistan when the Taliban targeted him for interpreting for US troops. The US has placed him in increased danger since it seeks to remove him to Afghanistan.

ICE raids in San Diego foreshadowed the roundups, protests now spreading across California | Opinion As immigration enforcement escalated in San Diego, a dramatic raid in one neighborhood prompted a remarkable response from its residents.

ICE raids in San Diego foreshadowed the roundups, protests now spreading across California

Sharing my latest commentary and photos for @calmatters.org reflecting on the worksite raid at a San Diego restaurant in its South Park neighborhood, and how neighbors pushed out the militarized ICE force.

Totally possible since Bovino was flanking the podium.

Sign the Petition Tell City Council: Reject Flock ALPR Funding in San Diego

Tell San Diego City Council: Reject Flock ALPR Funding

Flock Automatic License Plate Readers are costing us millions and supporting extremist agendas.

Stop funding oppressive technology and instead fund our neighborhoods!

www.change.org/p/tell-city-...

ICE called SDPD for crowd control. As the last ICE vehicle was half a block away, several SDPD vehicles arrived and stayed for no more than 5 minutes. They split after a convo with some in the crowd.

ICE issues a statement regarding its agents' use of "less lethal noise flash diversionary devices" on May 30 to excuse state violence, and blames neighbors wanting to protect migrant workers.

I suppose ICE feared the middle finger brigade that ran them out of the San Diego neighborhood.