Shots fired in San Bernardino, spike strips in Van Nuys, and clashes in Santa Ana highlight a rise in confrontations between immigration agents and civilians — a trend experts warn is intensifying across Southern California.

Lakewood Councilmember David Arellano says he was among those caught up in the climate of suspicion. During what was supposed to be a routine boat ride, he said, Border Patrol agents in tactical gear pulled alongside, boarded, and demanded identification before backing down once he showed his city ID.

“I’m a lifelong U.S. citizen,” Arellano wrote in a July Facebook post, which included a photo of two agents onboard. “A public servant. And yet in that moment, I was just someone who is brown.”

Since then, the legal safeguards against such encounters have weakened. On

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