Wendy Fry, CalMatters

Sheriff failed to investigate 7 rape cases at ICE detention center

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

San Diego County Sheriff’s officials failed to investigate at least seven reported sexual assaults at the privately run Otay Mesa immigration detention center in 2025, and records show the agency has ceded control of the cases to civilian administrators employed by the nation’s largest for-profit prison contractor.

Under a 2020 memorandum of understanding between the sheriff’s department and CoreCivic, detention center Warden Christopher LaRose has authority to decide whether to investigate rape allegations at the facility, which currently houses just under 1,500 federal immigration detainees, most of whom are in custody awaiting hearings and have not been convicted of a crime.

CalMatters obtained the memorandum after seeking additional information about the alleged rapes and four attempted sexual assaults through a California Public Records Act request. While a sheriff’s spokesperson said the agency was not investigating those cases, he said he was unable to turn over additional records because they were part of “a law enforcement investigation.”

CoreCivic representatives did not respond to repeated requests for comment on this story.

The company manages the detention center under a contract with the Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations. ICE officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Seven privately run immigrant detention centers operate in California, with CoreCivic holding contracts for two of them. It could not immediately be determined if other detention centers have similar agreements with local law enforcement agencies.

“We’re horrified but not surprised to learn that numerous sexual assaults went uninvestigated at a CoreCivic facility,” said Susan Beaty, senior attorney with the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice advocacy group.

“Local and state enforcement agencies have a responsibility to use their power to protect the rights of Californians in detention, and hold accountable both ICE and private prison companies that profit to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars to incarcerate immigrants in our state.”

On its website, CoreCivic states it has a “zero tolerance” policy against all forms of sexual abuse and sexual harassment. “CoreCivic has outlined an aggressive plan specifying the efforts we undertake to Prevent, Detect, and Respond to all allegations of conduct that falls into either category,” the company states.

A 2022 audit conducted by the outside company Creative Corrections found the facility met all federal standards for preventing sexual assaults.

San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Terra Lawson-Remer said she plans to question San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez at a hearing Tuesday night on ICE transfers from county jails.

“I do not have much confidence at all in CoreCivic’s ability to investigate these very serious allegations,” she said earlier this month.

San Diego County is in the midst of a separate legal battle with CoreCivic over the Otay Mesa Detention Center. In a lawsuit filed this month, the county alleges the Trump administration and Tennessee-based CoreCivic illegally blocked a public health inspection of the Otay Mesa Detention Center. According to the lawsuit, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement initially cleared county officials to enter the facility but reversed that decision when the inspection team arrived.

Overall, there were 142 calls for service to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department for the Otay Mesa Detention Center in 2024. Fourteen 14 were identified as related to the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), a 2003 federal law designed to prevent, detect and respond to sexual abuse and harassment in correctional facilities.

Last year, there were 159 calls for service to the Otay Mesa facility. Twenty-one calls were related to the Prison Rape Elimination Act, and of those, seven were allegations of rape.

CalMatters used a Public Records Act request to obtain a digital log generated by 911 dispatchers and emergency services for 2024 and 2025.

CalMatters attempted to obtain additional records about the sexual assault and attempted sexual assault incidents, such as the audio recordings of the 911 calls and the full dispatch log, but the sheriff’s department refused to release them stating the records were “records of a law enforcement investigation, or any investigatory or security files compiled by a law enforcement agency are exempt from disclosure.”

The records CalMatters obtained gave no indication whether the victims were detainees or employees. Similarly, the records gave no indication about the perpetrators.

The department’s memorandum of understanding with CoreCivic was signed and dated by former San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore in 2020.

“Under the Memorandum of Understanding…the facility’s Warden is responsible for investigating any allegation of sexual assault or abuse,” said Lt. David Collins, the media relations director for the sheriff’s department. Collins referred further questions about the incidents to CoreCivic.

He said CoreCivic “did not request our involvement” for any cases last year.

“Because no criminal investigations were initiated by the Sheriff’s Office, no reports were forwarded to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office for consideration of charges,” he said.

If deputies had investigated, the MOU would require them to forward their findings to CoreCivic.

“Upon completion/closure of an investigation, Investigating Agency will forward a copy of the investigation report to the Facility for retention as part of Facility’s record-keeping requirements,” the MOU states.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

‘Devastating’ wait times at Mexico border strain California small businesses

This story was originally published by CalMatters, nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Lea esta historia en Español

Government agencies are spending billions of dollars to improve wait times at the U.S.-Mexico border, but the checkpoints remain severely clogged — and border communities are hurting.

In recent months lines at the border often stretched for several hours, frustrating more than 150,000 students, cross-border families, health care workers, small business owners, and others who daily cross to and from Mexico. Experts say some fronterizas have stopped crossing the border as often, and the loss of foot traffic in the region has resulted in heavy sales losses for small businesses.

“Money we can replace, but time will never come back. Those people are wasting their time in that line,” said Sunil Gakherja, 49, who owns a small perfume store in San Ysidro, a neighborhood in San Diego, close to the border.

Sunil Gakhreja, owner of Sunny Perfumes, in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego on April 16, 2024. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters

U.S. border officials point to the need to shift resources to handle irregular migration — people who come into the United States in places other than official ports of entry, usually to seek asylum. San Diego surpassed Tucson this month as Border Patrol’s busiest sector in the nation.

But border-area residents and business leaders say the federal government should staff the border effectively so that the $741-million expansion of the San Ysidro Port of Entry has its intended impact, to reduce wait times and stimulate the regional economy.

Research published by the Atlantic Council says a 10-minute reduction in wait times could lead to an additional $26 million worth of cargo entering the United States each month and an annual impact of $5.4 million on the U.S. economy from purchases by families and individuals entering the United States from Mexico.

In the San Diego region, regular border crossers say wait times are going up, not down. Waits that used to last 30 minutes to an hour on weekdays can now regularly take three to four hours. On several days last December, pedestrians waited six hours or more. Adding to their frustration, long lines also stretch southbound to enter Mexico.

“Devastating” is how Kenia Zamarripa described the waits on both sides of the border. She is vice president of international and public affairs at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“This is families losing their incomes,” she said. “There are 800 small businesses in San Ysidro that depend on pedestrian crossings and, again, 90% of their customers cross on foot.”

State officials said it’s unclear how much California has missed out on in sales tax revenue because that information can’t be broken down by zip code.

Small border businesses suffering

After opening in 2017, the El Rincon restaurant in San Ysidro faced the same challenges and growing pains many small, family-run businesses contend with, said Andrea Alaniz. Her mom owns the Mexican food restaurant along San Ysidro Boulevard, a few blocks from the border.

“We just opened the doors, and it was just us doing the cooking and waiting tables — hoping that business would increase and keep on a nice trend,” she recalled.

Word quickly spread of her mother’s caseros — homemade family recipes from Guadalajara, Jalisco. Lines would wrap around the tiny restaurant, with some customers even driving from Los Angeles or crossing north from Baja California, for the food.

“You know, the spices … you can find the spices anywhere, but really, it’s the way my mom and my family cooks,” said Alaniz. “My mom’s an amazing cook, and our recipes … they go way back.”

Andrea Alaniz at El Ricon, her family’s restaurant, in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego on April 16, 2024. The restaurant is one of several business that has been affected by recent closures at the U.S.-Mexico border. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters

Andrea Alaniz at El Rincon, her family’s restaurant, in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego on April 16, 2024. The restaurant is one of several business that has been affected by recent closures at the U.S.-Mexico border. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters

The whole family — five siblings — pitched in to handle the increased volume and their newfound success.

“We all work here,” laughed Alaniz. “It was a Sunday, and I remember we were all here, and the music was blaring, and we were just dancing and having fun and it was a really nice feeling.”

Then the pandemic hit. Federal officials restricted cross-border travel. Business tanked. About 200 businesses closed in San Ysidro, a working-class, mostly immigrant community of about 25,000 people, said Jason Wells, president of the local chamber of commerce.

“Shut their doors forever. Gone,” he said.

Alaniz and her family managed to stay open and even sent some money home to family in Mexico, but it was a daily fight. “We just don’t get the same amount of people coming in, because people aren’t going back and forth anymore,” said Alaniz.

Sergio Carrillo prepares food at El Ricon restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego on April 16, 2024. The restaurant is one of several business that has been affected by the recent closures of the U.S.-Mexico border. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters

Waitress Daisy Marlene Montes Carranza works at El Rincon restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego on April 16, 2024. The restaurant is one of several business that has been affected by recent closures at the U.S.-Mexico border. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters

First: Sergio Carrillo prepares food at El Rincon restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego on April 16, 2024. Last: Waitress Daisy Marlene Montes Carranza works at El Rincon restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego on April 16, 2024. The restaurant is one of several businesses that has been affected by recent closures of the U.S.-Mexico border. Photos by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters

El Rincon restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego on April 16, 2024. The restaurant is one of several businesses that has been affected by recent closures at the U.S.-Mexico border. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters

Multiple studies show immigrants like Alaniz’s family were a key economic engine for the United States’ rebound from the pandemic. Some 50% of the labor market’s recent growth came from foreign-born workers between January 2023 and January 2024, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis of federal data.

Zamarripa says it’s these same border communities that lose about $2 billion yearly because of excessive border wait times. She worries the latest bottlenecks at checkpoints could severely impact those struggling to get back on their feet.

Gakherja, the owner of the perfumery, described a Sunday customer who waited six hours to cross the border.

“He got in the line at 9 in the morning, and he got here at 3:30 p.m. It’s too much. Imagine they have kids who have to go to the restroom. They need food. They’re not thinking about shopping after that,” said Gakherja.

Waiting is the hardest part

It’s not just small businesses that are hurting. Those hardest hit by backlogs at inefficient ports of entry include the region’s hospitality and hospital workers, students, medical patients, and anyone who relies on the interdependence of a cross-border region to offset the skyrocketing costs of living in San Diego, one of the most expensive cities in the nation.

Hector Urquiza, a 19-year-old college student serving in the Army Reserves, lives with his brother in Tijuana because rent is too expensive in San Diego.

“When I had to go to work, there was a two-hour line. It was like a snake, you know, wiggling around. That was kind of painful,” said Urquiza.

Cross-border travelers often turn to Facebook to document their experiences and wait times because the official Customs and Border Protection data is considered inaccurate and unreliable. Cómo está la línea Tijuana (How is the Tijuana line), a Facebook group with 430,000 members, was founded in June 2013 when its creator relied on the official CBP wait times and was extraordinarily late for work, according to his posts.