{"id":565816,"date":"2026-02-04T14:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/565816\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T14:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:18:09","slug":"in-san-diego-newsom-blasts-immigration-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/565816\/","title":{"rendered":"In San Diego, Newsom blasts immigration crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by\u00a0CalMatters<\/a>.\u00a0Sign up<\/a>\u00a0for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom touted California\u2019s drug interdiction efforts during a San Diego press conference Monday that contrasted the state\u2019s public safety efforts with combative tactics by President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

Since 2021, Newsom said, National Guard troops have seized 34,357 pounds of fentanyl worth an estimated $506 million at California ports of entry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what the National Guard should be doing,\u201d Newsom said at the event. \u201cThis is the kind of partnership that makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month a federal judge ended federal control of the National Guard<\/a> troops in Los Angeles\u00a0and returned them to Newsom\u2019s command, six months after President Donald Trump ordered 4,000 troops to the city to quell protests against federal immigration raids in California. Newsom argued that Trump\u2019s deployment of the Guard diverted them from duties including drug enforcement and wildfire prevention.<\/p>\n

Newsom terms out after eight years as governor this year, and is expected to launch a campaign for president in the 2028 election. He has positioned himself as a resistance figure against Trump\u2019s intensified immigration crackdown and heightened federal control over states.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Newsom argued that California is combatting crime and patrolling its border, while responding to disruption in the wake of the administration\u2019s mass deportation campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the kind of thing that we should be doing more,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about politics. It\u2019s not about creating anxiety and fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

CalMatters could not reach the White House for comment Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Newsom denounced sweeping immigration raids in Los Angeles and other California cities, noting that one of the early ICE actions involved arrests of kitchen staff at the San Diego restaurant Buona Forchetta<\/a> last May.<\/p>\n

The ICE surge escalated in Los Angeles, prompting public demonstrations, then a crackdown by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw the federalization of the National Guard, hundreds of millions of dollars wasted of taxpayer money,\u201d Newsom said.<\/p>\n

As the Department of Homeland Security draws down its controversial \u201cOperation Metro Surge\u201d in Minneapolis, where ICE officers fatally shot two U.S. citizens, Newsom lamented that the operation\u2019s leader, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, was sent back to California.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hardly celebrating that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Newsom said that earlier Monday he spoke with residents of El Centro, where Bovino originally held command. Community leaders described how local organizations are helping children left in charge of households after parents are detained in immigration raids, and aiding people in ICE custody.<\/p>\n

Newsom pointed to CalMatters reporting that immigration arrests in San Diego have quietly surged by 1,500%<\/a> over last year, \u201cbut without the fanfare of what you\u2019re seeing in your living room and on your screen happening in places like Minneapolis.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said the state is responding with lawsuits challenging the administration\u2019s mass deportation efforts, and distributing money to community organizations for legal aid, counseling and mental health support for people affected by immigration raids.<\/p>\n

In the wide-ranging press conference, Newsom weighed in on topics from his efforts to seek $33.9 billion in wildfire disaster assistance for Los Angeles, to his rejection of Trump\u2019s bid to restart offshore oil drilling. He cited Florida Governor Ron DeSantis\u2019<\/a> shared misgivings about the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a well-established opposition in the state of California,\u201d Newsom said. \u201cI find it ironic and interesting that so does the governor of Florida. When Donald Trump advocates for offshore drilling off the coast of Mar-A-Lago, I\u2019ll know the sincerity of these efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsom distanced himself from former President Joe Biden\u2019s immigration policies, saying \u201cMy opinion was a little different than the prior administration\u2019s on border security.\u201d He called for reforming the immigration and asylum systems to account for long-time residents without legal status, mixed status families and workforce needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThose things need to be front and center in our conversation and debate around immigration, but unfortunately, it\u2019s not, because it\u2019s been bastardized,\u201d Newsom said.<\/p>\n

He pointed to the state\u2019s seizure of half billion dollars worth of fentanyl, along with methamphetamine, guns and cash, as evidence that California\u2019s approach is working.<\/p>\n

Since October the National Guard has seized 3,005 firearms and $34 million in cash, Maj. Gen. Matthew Beevers of the California National Guard said, freeing other law enforcement to perform their duties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it means is that my team enables sworn law enforcement officers to get on the street and do the hard work that they have to do,\u201d Beevers said. \u201cIt also enables Customs and Border Protection agents to be able to be on the border where they belong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsom described California Highway Patrol officers and National Guard troops as \u201cSwiss Army knives\u201d that fill multiple roles in disaster response and public safety. In August, the governor deployed California Highway Patrol officers on crime suppression teams<\/a> in San Diego, the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, the Central Valley, Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area, to seize illegal weapons and drugs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody knows that we are proud to be partners and part of the solution,\u201d California Highway Patrol Commissioner Sean Duryee said. \u201cI look at it as the National Guard is the first line of defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The highway patrol, Duryee said, is \u201cthe last line of defense before those narcotics are in our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsom said he\u2019s committed to working with the Trump administration on \u201clegitimate public safety concerns,\u201d but cast doubt on the potential for such a partnership.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not again what this is about,\u201d he said of Trump\u2019s immigration enforcement campaign. \u201cIt\u2019s about terrorizing the community. It\u2019s about chaos. It\u2019s about fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on CalMatters<\/a> and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a> license.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tType of Content<\/p>\n

News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published by\u00a0CalMatters.\u00a0Sign up\u00a0for their newsletters. Gov. Gavin Newsom touted California\u2019s drug interdiction efforts during…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":565817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,156104,409,80,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-565816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-calmatters","tag-immigration","tag-politics","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116012797566834708","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}