Federal Protective Service cited immigrant-accompaniment volunteers for loitering in San Diego federal building

On February 26, 2026, Federal Protective Service (FPS) officers cited volunteer Patrick Corrigan and at least three other members of the FAITH (Faithful Accompaniment in Trust and Hope) program for "loitering" in a hallway outside the ICE check-in office at San Diego's Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building. FPS, a Department of Homeland Security agency that guards federal property, cited the volunteers under a regulation requiring compliance with posted signs and the directions of security personnel. Corrigan said he was one of about seven volunteers standing in the hallway when an officer told them to leave; when he returned after briefly stepping away to talk with the group, he was detained and cited. He said he was aware of at least four more citations issued the following day.

For roughly a year, FAITH volunteers had accompanied immigrants to scheduled ICE check-ins and immigration-court hearings in the same hallway without incident, as part of a faith-organization program launched to provide a supportive presence during the Trump administration's mass-deportation campaign. An FPS spokesperson told the San Diego Union-Tribune the no-loitering regulation "is not new" and has been in place since November 2025, and that "obstructing access in federal buildings is a crime." Corrigan and other volunteers disputed that anyone had obstructed access, saying the citations followed a year of the same practice going unchallenged.

Volunteers said the citations mark the first time FPS has enforced the loitering rule against their accompaniment practice, and that the shift came without any change in their own conduct.