In Mira Mesa on Monday morning, one person was apparently apprehended by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on his way to work.

Community activist Arturo Gonzalez received a desperate message from the man’s family, who were looking for him and his truck. Gonzalez was driving near City Heights and College Grove area, monitoring ICE activities, when he got the message.

“Let me know the description of the truck and his usual route to work,” Gonzalez said, using voice-to-text to respond.

It was 10 o’clock, and he had been driving around for the past three hours.

“This morning, we had a family reach out that they were about to leave for work, and they said that there were cars parked outside of their apartment complex,” Gonzalez said. “So we got there and immediately confirmed that those vehicles were, in fact, ICE.”

He then alerted his social media network to ICE’s presence. He also used a megaphone to alert residents in the apartment complex that ICE was there. He said agents left without detaining anyone.

He’s been doing this for nearly two years since the Trump administration began cracking down on immigrants and deporting them. Lately, though, he’s seen an uptick in enforcement activities.

“This is unlike what we've seen all year long,” Gonzalez said. “What's happening right now in the last week and a half is a complete, big, immense surge — the biggest surge I have ever seen since I started doing this work.”

According to the Washington Examiner, the administration is launching a 45-day enforcement surge, starting in San Diego. Quoting sources, the newspaper said agents were instructed to go after anybody, regardless of criminal history.

“(It’s) very unfortunate that it is happening at this time,” said Ian Seruelo, an immigration attorney at PAG-ASA Law Clinic, serving the Filipino and Asian community. Pag-asa means hope in Tagalog.

He’s been getting a lot of calls lately from family members of detainees.

“They are calling because their family members have been arrested,” Seruelo said. “So that climate of fear has really intensified.”

ICE agents are also changing their tactics. Gonzalez said they were seen wearing orange safety vests at construction sites to blend in.

“I’ve seen them try to use vehicles that look less obvious,” he said. All this to create a climate of fear among the immigrant community.

“People are scared to take their kids to school,” Gonzalez said. “People are at the grocery store, and once they hear us screaming that ICE is here, they don't even want to leave that grocery store.”

Because of the crackdown, Seruelo advised vulnerable people to carry what’s known as the “red card” with them everywhere they go. It helps immigrants inform ICE agents that the cardholder is aware of their rights, regardless of their status.

“The right to remain silent, the right not to answer any questions from ICE,” he said. “The right not to provide any kind of documents from ICE, the right to have an attorney.”

People who are stopped by ICE can show the card to agents to exercise their legal rights, Seruelo said.

Both noted the timing of the enforcement surge being so close to the midterm elections. They think it’s a fear tactic to keep immigrants from voting.

“I think this administration has been known to use all tools available to them to threaten, to intimidate people of color, especially from voting,” Seruelo said.

“I think it's definitely a tactic that they're using to scare people and to get people to not go out and vote,” Gonzalez said. “It's also because they know that once we get out there and vote, that we're going to do what we can (to) elect officials (who) are going to start implementing things to stop ICE from what they're doing. And they're scared of that.”