San Diego, CA
San Diego family celebrates UCSD graduation amid ICE fears
Why this matters
Tens of thousands of children who are U.S. citizens live with an undocumented parent in San Diego County. Fears of deportation can alter their lives.
Emily Galicia’s mother stood out among the thousands of friends and family members gathered on a grass lawn at UC San Diego’s 2026 graduation ceremony.
Her red felt hat was easy to spot as she weaved through the crowd, scanning the smiling graduates filing off the stage for her daughter, a bouquet of white roses and a teddy bear clutched in her arm.
But earlier in her senior year, Galicia had worried her mom wouldn’t be there to celebrate her graduation at all.
In October, her mom hadn’t returned home after a scheduled appointment with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Instead, she had been detained and held in ICE custody, leaving Galicia, 22, and her older sister, 26, on their own for about a month.
“I never thought it would happen,” Galicia said.
President Donald Trump’s administration is on a mission to carry out the largest deportation in U.S. history. It has sparked political debates and pointed discussions about public safety and American identity, but the impact on the children of undocumented parents is much less abstract.
Immigration advocates say the administration has targeted immigrant families who have been in the U.S. for decades, some of whom have been checking in regularly with federal officials — despite claims from officials that they are focusing on deporting the “worst of the worst.”
This week, the Supreme Court delivered one of the most significant blows to the administration’s immigration agenda so far — a decision with profound consequences for immigrant families. The justices ruled 6-3 against allowing the administration to eliminate birthright citizenship for babies born on American soil to some parents without citizenship.
But other policy changes remain in place that could affect thousands of immigrant parents and their kids locally. According to an estimate from the nonprofit American Immigration Council, about 56,500 children under 18 lived with an undocumented parent in San Diego County in 2023.
While Galicia’s mom was eventually released from detention, the arrest altered her youngest daughter’s last year in college: Galicia moved her classes online to be able to take her mom to immigration and medical appointments, she spent less time with friends in her senior year of college, and she lived the constant anxiety that immigration agents were watching her family.
“If it was a choice between graduating and helping my mom, I would choose to help my mom,” Galicia said.
For families and communities across the U.S., graduation season is a time for celebration and optimism for the future. For immigrant families in particular, a child’s graduation can mean the realization of dreams generations in the making, through sacrifices and hard work.
That was true for Galicia and her family earlier this month on the UCSD campus.
Her graduation cap was decorated in pink, with lace and cloth roses adorning the top, along with the words, “Lo logré, Mama,” written in pearl beads.
“I made it, Mom.”
The biggest lesson
Galicia knew the sacrifices her mom, who used to come home from long days of work with swollen feet and tired eyes, made for her and sister.
After the sisters’ dad died from a heart attack, Galicia’s mom considered moving her daughters back to her home country of Mexico, where the rest of her family remained.
She decided instead that they should grow up and go to school in their own home country, the U.S.
“I always tell them: The three of us are in this together, and together we always pull through,” Galicia’s mom said in Spanish.
inewsource is not naming Galicia’s mother because she has a pending immigration case and her family fears retaliation from the government. She has been detained by ICE twice, the first time during the first Trump administration.
The oldest daughter Serenity, then 17, had to figure out how to pay rent, post bail for her mom and take care of her younger sister. When ICE detained her mom again almost 10 years later, Serenity said she felt no more prepared as she was when she was a teenager.
“I think most of those days it was just me sitting on my desk and crying at the same time while doing what I needed to do for work,” she said.
According to ICE, the agency made about 10,500 arrests in San Diego and Imperial counties in the first 14 months of Trump’s second term. About 1,500 of those arrests happened near schools, hospitals, houses of worship and other places after the administration loosened guidelines around enforcement in such “sensitive locations.”
Most of those arrested, like Galicia’s mother, have no criminal record, according to an inewsource analysis of ICE arrests in the region from Trump’s inauguration through October 2025.
Galicia graduated June 13 with a degree in economics and a minor in ethnic studies. She said she wants to use her degree to help working-class immigrant families like hers and support her mom.
Outside of the graduation ceremony, the three posed for photos in front of a green hedge, laughing and crying as they embraced the graduating Galicia in the middle.
Despite the recent challenges, Galicia holds onto the biggest lesson her mom bestowed: Have hope for the future.
“People can take everything away from you, and you can essentially go down to rock bottom, but there’s always a way to keep going forward,” Galicia said.
Global entertainment company Webtoon is returning to the hallowed halls of San Diego Comic-Con with a larger-than-life slate of panels featuring top talent and fresh announcements.
They will be shining the spotlight on some of today’s most engaging webcomic creators, including Derek V. Song (Fantasy High) and Punko (Cinderella Boy).
Let’s take a look at their schedule:
Thursday, July 23 – 10am – Room 29AB
Creature Craft: Visionaries of Horror Comics Share Their Secrets
This panel features Punko, creator of Stagtown and Cinderella Boy on WEBTOON; Cullen Bunn, creator of Ripcord and Deluge for Ignition Press; and Cat Staggs, co-creator of Death Mask, and artist on Tales for a HalloweeNight for Storm King Comics. Rotem Rusak, Editor-in-Chief at Nerdist, will moderate.
Friday, July 24 – 10am – Room 32AB
Love in Every Universe: The Great Romance Trope Debate
Join ROSEOAK, creator of Not So Silent on WEBTOON, Alessandra Ferreri, Head of Content at Wattpad, E.M. Wilson, author of Situationship, and Becca Erin Title, founder of Meet Cute Romance Bookshop. The panel is moderated by Crystal Bell, the Culture Editor at Mashable.
Friday, July 24 – 1pm – Room 32AB
Adapting Fantasy High for WEBTOON with Derek V. Song
Featuring Derek V. Song, writer of Fantasy High. Fans will get a behind-the-scenes look at adapting the beloved Dimension 20 series for WEBTOON and learn more about bringing the world of Fantasy High to a new visual format.
Saturday, July 25 – 11:30am – Room 24ABC
What’s Next from WEBTOON Entertainment
Featuring Ryan Lee, Head of Content at WEBTOON; Sydney Bright, Head of Global Animation at WEBTOON Productions; Erik Kozura, Producer at WEBTOON; ROSEOAK, creator of Not So Silent; Derek V. Song, writer of Fantasy High; Punko, creator of Stagtown and Cinderella Boy; and Ucheomaaa, creator of Vibe Check! on WEBTOON. Journalist, comic critic, and 2026 Eisner judge, Tiffany Babb, will moderate. his panel will deliver a slew of announcements, exclusive first looks, and Creator appearances from its platform and entertainment businesses. Additionally, the panel will give fans a window into what’s next from WEBTOON’s most exciting stories and projects, with news from WEBTOON Originals, WEBTOON Productions, WEBTOON Unscrolled, and more.
Beachgoers in one Southern California town had to run for their lives after two massive sea lions came out of the ocean and onto the beach in San Diego.
In a video posted July 7 on Instagram, Dion Ruzicka captured the terrifying moment the two giant sea creatures hit the shore and began chasing people at the beach on a sunny California day.
One sea lion suddenly charged at stunned beachgoers, barreling across the sand as terrified visitors shrieked and sprinted away while the barking beast gave chase.
Moments later, a second sea lion joined the chaos, sending panicked crowds scrambling for higher ground — and even into the surf — to escape the pair’s path.
The more people ran, the more determined the hefty marine mammals seemed, waddling after the fleeing beachgoers in a bizarre game of chase.
“Oh my God,” one person could be heard saying, in the midst of the chaotic scramble.
It didn’t matter whether the visitor was young or old, the sea lion just kept chasing them. Finally, both animals dived back into the ocean and swam away at a quick pace.
It is not the first time such an encounter has happened in the popular La Jolla spot. A year ago, a video showed a pair of sea lions chasing beachgoers around before finally leaving.
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San Diego has warned the public about the potential dangers of going near wildlife living in the area.
“With the increase in the sea lion population, Point La Jolla has become a popular tourist destination for the public to view these wild animals close up,” a message on the city’s website read.
As a result, interactions between sea lions and the public have increased.
“Members of the public have been observed trying to touch, take selfies, and get as close to sea lions as possible which is a dangerous situation for both the public and the animals,” it added.
Officials suggest people watch the animals from the boardwalk and keep their distance from the sea lions.
While it is unclear what lead to Tuesday’s chase, the summer months are pupping season for these ocean animals. Mothers and fathers become protective of their young ones, and will display aggressive behavior, if they sense a threat, per officials.
“These interactions are not only dangerous for both humans and wildlife, it may be a violation of the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act which helps to safeguard these animals,” the city said.
The California Post has reached out to the La Jolla Parks and Beaches group for further comment.
San Diego’s most beloved neighborhoods, like North Park, Golden Hill and Sherman Heights, were built by people who needed a place to live and found one. But the bungalows, fourplexes and cottages that gave working San Diegans a foothold in those neighborhoods can hardly be built anywhere else in the city.
Rules written decades ago banned them. For 70 years, San Diego has been paying for that mistake in the form of a city its own workforce can no longer afford to live in.
Neighborhood Homes for All of Us is the city’s plan to fix that: family-sized townhomes, rowhouses and small duplexes built in the neighborhoods where San Diegans most want to live.
While San Diego rents are softening as new apartments are built, the cost of buying a home is not moving, and it won’t, because the rental and ownership markets run on entirely separate tracks. Renters benefit when more rentals are built, forcing landlords to compete for them.
However, a family trying to buy a home benefits only if more homes are available for sale. San Diego home prices now exceed nine times the median household income, among the worst ratios in the nation, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Building rental housing is important, but it does not change the math for a buyer.
The homes that would change it — family-sized, on the ownership track, in the neighborhoods where people most want to raise children — have been illegal to build for decades. San Diego produced roughly 7,000 condos and townhomes a year in 2005. By 2022, that number had collapsed below 500. Part of that drop is because of litigation rules that drove up insurance costs for builders, caps on pre-sales that finance these projects and high fees. Another major reason is that we simply do not allow starter homes on smaller lots. So, instead, builders default to rentals because that’s what current rules allow them to build profitably.
London Moeder Advisors, a San Diego real estate economics firm, finds that eliminating the city’s large-lot-size mandates could produce new townhomes at 42% less cost than surrounding single-family homes without taxpayer subsidies. While this price point is still high for many, it’s more attainable for young families starting out. And importantly, the price could drop further if the state advances reforms to address litigation rules and pre-sale caps that drive up costs.
The city’s program is also focused on adding homes in San Diego’s neighborhoods with the best-performing schools and most accessible jobs. These are also the neighborhoods with the most restrictive regulations on smaller starter homes. A teacher whose classroom is in La Jolla cannot afford to live there. A firefighter stationed in Mission Hills commutes from Santee. The homes that would let them stay are currently illegal to build in much of these areas. Neighborhood Homes changes that.
While critics may say San Diego already has the tools for adding homes to neighborhoods, why add another program? Because each of those tools was for a different purpose. None were designed to add more for-sale housing.
ADUs, the backyard homes now common across the city, typically top out at 750 square feet (because of fee cliffs) and entail intricacies when selling to own. Other tools, like Senate Bill 9, have been layered with requirements that make it far too complicated and expensive for many homeowners to split their lots to add homes. Laws like Senate Bill 79 are important for adding more housing near transit. But none of these tools focuses on family-sized, ownership-track townhomes in an established neighborhood.
The Neighborhood Homes initiative asks a simple question: Where do the families who can’t afford a million-dollar home but don’t want an apartment go? We can continue to say certain neighborhoods are off-limits to the teachers, trades workers and young families who want to live there, or San Diego can set its own terms for how they grow, with local standards in a form the city controls.
San Diego’s most beloved streets were not preserved into existence. They were built — a duplex here, a rowhouse there — by people who needed a place to live in the city they loved and found one. That is what Neighborhood Homes makes possible again.
Asad is a former board member of the YIMBY Democrats of San Diego County. He resides in Mid-City.
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