SAN DIEGO — As the federal government reports 196,600 deportation proceedings initiated, more than 14,400 people referred to ICE, and 2,400 arrests carried out at immigration offices as part of what it describes as the immigration system’s “achievements” in 2025, in San Diego those figures are increasingly translating into unexpected arrests of immigrants during green card interviews — including individuals with no criminal record who showed up to complete legal procedures to regularize their status.
Since mid-November, agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have detained applicants for permanent residency inside the San Diego office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a practice immigration attorneys describe as unusual and alarming. According to reports by NBC 7 San Diego, the arrests have fueled fear among families attempting to remain in the country through legal means.
Families and witnesses describe disturbing scenes: individuals taken into custody immediately after interviews that represented the final step in their residency process, some of them accompanied by young children. In at least two documented cases, the arrests involved European immigrants — a man from Germany and a woman from the United Kingdom — both without criminal histories and with pending residency applications.
“Three men wearing masks, bulletproof vests, and carrying weapons came in and said they were going to arrest Tom,” said Audrey Hestmark, wife of Tom Bilger, who was detained after his interview. “They told us they had a warrant, didn’t show identification, and took him away in handcuffs. I couldn’t follow them. I didn’t know where they were taking him.”
A similar situation was described by Stephen Paul, whose wife was arrested while holding their nearly six-month-old baby. “We had to take the baby out of his mother’s arms while she was crying,” he said. “We had done everything correctly. Our attorneys told us that visa overstays are often forgiven during the green card process.”
Both families say their cases entered the system through legal channels, involved no criminal charges, and followed standard legal advice. Despite that, after the arrests they spent hours without information, with their loved ones initially held in the basement of the federal building and later transferred to the Otay Mesa Detention Center, without having been formally processed.
These detentions coincide with federal data showing that most immigration arrests in the region are not linked to criminal offenses. According to figures from inewsource, nearly 5,000 ICE arrests were carried out in San Diego and Imperial counties through October 2025, and 58 percent of those detained had no criminal record, but rather administrative violations such as overstays or incomplete paperwork.
For attorneys and advocates, the message is a deterrent. “Arresting people during lawful appointments erodes trust in the system and discourages families from showing up to processes meant precisely to regularize their status,” community organizations said, noting an increase in emergency consultations driven by fear of family separation.
When asked by NBC 7 about these specific cases, ICE responded that the agency “is committed to enforcing immigration law” and that individuals without legal status “may face arrest, detention, and removal even at federal facilities.” When pressed further, the agency reiterated the same position.
The arrests are occurring alongside an expansion of enforcement powers outlined in USCIS’s 2025 annual report: 29,000 investigations for suspected fraud, 196,600 Notices to Appear, the termination of humanitarian and family reunification programs, reductions in work permits, and stricter naturalization processes.
While the official report frames these actions as a defense of national interest and system integrity, the cases documented in San Diego expose the human cost of that strategy: infants separated from their mothers, households suddenly without income, and families left in legal limbo after voluntarily attempting to comply with the law.
“No one wants to see families torn apart like this,” Paul said, gesturing toward his son. “You can’t look at him and think it’s okay to take his mother away.”
As the federal government highlights record numbers of arrests and proceedings, the experience of these families raises a fundamental question absent from official reports: whether the tightening of immigration enforcement is truly combating fraud — or indiscriminately punishing those who tried to do things the right way.