Hoisting signs and raising their voices, thousands of people protested the Trump administration and its immigration practices across San Diego County on Saturday — and pledged more of the same Sunday and going forward.
They jammed all four corners of a popular intersection in Pacific Beach. They lined up for hundreds of yards along Fletcher Parkway in El Cajon and crowded along Millenia Avenue at the Otay Ranch Town Center in Chula Vista.
Hundreds protest the killing of Renee Good and the policies of the Trump administration on Saturday. (Zoë Meyers / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Still others registered their discontent at rallies in Encinitas, Escondido, Del Mar and Mira Mesa to protest the killing of Renee Good, a mother of three who died Wednesday after she was shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
Federal agents in Portland shot two people in another incident Thursday. They are are expected to survive.
“I just hate what the current administration is doing,” said Emily Bradshaw, a UC San Diego history and world literature major who was attending a morning rally at Ingraham Street and Crown Point Drive in Pacific Beach.
“I don’t want to grow up in 30 years’ time and say that I did nothing to stop it,” she said.
Protesters chant during a demonstration against ICE and the recent killing of Minnesota resident Renee Good on the corner of Crown Point Drive and Ingraham St. (Sandy Huffaker / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Nearby, James Soe Nyun, a retired library worker from Bay Park, said he was sickened by the ICE shooting days earlier — and worried sick about the health of democracy.
“You need to be concerned about it. I need to be concerned about it. We all need to be concerned about changes in the country,” he said. “We’re sliding toward authoritarianism.”
Immigration protests have sprouted up across San Diego County and the nation since Trump instituted stricter apprehension and enforcement protocols.
Trump administration officials say they are following through on the president’s campaign pledges, but critics complain that agents are denying people’s due process rights and wrongly detaining people with no criminal record.
From left, Nacny Chiquete and Lois Knowlton protest the killing of Renee Good and the policies of the Trump administration on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026 in El Cajon, CA. (Zoë Meyers / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The number of demonstrations both locally and nationally have spiked since the shooting in Minneapolis.
Good was killed Thursday opposing a surge of federal agents in Minnesota in recent weeks, ostensibly to fight alleged fraud in subsidized day care services. Federal officials called Good a domestic terrorist even though video from the scene appears to show her driving away from the confrontation.
Outside Parkway Plaza in El Cajon, hundreds of people crowded along Fletcher Parkway, many of them chanting and drumming and using bullhorns to convey their disapproval of Trump and his administration.
Jessica Lange protests on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026 in El Cajon, CA. (Zoë Meyers / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“We don’t like what’s going on,” said Sheila Botkin of Jamul, who attended the El Cajon demonstration with her husband, Henry. “They are lying about everything. You can’t believe anything they say.”
Eight-year-old Stacey Smith was handing out free cookies to rallygoers. He said it was the least he could do to support demonstrators.
“We want people to be safe,” the boy said. “I don’t know if cookies get the bad people out but some people might not have brought snacks.”
Police in San Diego, El Cajon and elsewhere reported no problems with the protests, which are scheduled to continue Sunday at various locations, including outside the Otay Mesa Detention Center. Additional events are planned for Oceanside, Julian and other venues.