The Trump administration is asking sheriffs in four California counties, including San Diego, to release the names of all noncitizen inmates in their jails, as well as information on the crimes for which they were arrested or convicted and their release dates, officials said Thursday.
The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement that the data request is “designed to assist federal immigration authorities in prioritizing the removal of illegal aliens who committed crimes after illegally entering the United States.”
However, the petition appears to conflict with the California Values Act, or Senate Bill 54, which limits cooperation between local law enforcement and immigration agencies — with certain exceptions.
The California Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that it will “review this directive and monitor its implementation for compliance with the law.”
“President Trump and his Department of Justice cannot bully our local law enforcement into breaking the law,” Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said.
SB 54, which has been in effect since 2018, allows county jails to transfer an individual into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody if federal agents present a criminal arrest warrant for a violation of a federal criminal immigration law, Bonta’s office said, “but it does not allow for the wholesale notification to DOJ of individuals housed in county jails, regardless of whether or not they have even been found guilty of a crime.”
The DOJ said it hopes the sheriffs will assist voluntarily. If not, the department “will pursue all available means of obtaining the data, including through subpoenas or other compulsory process.”
“Removing criminal illegal aliens is this Administration’s highest priority,” U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “I look forward to cooperating with California’s county sheriffs to accomplish our shared duty of keeping Californians and all Americans safe and secure.”
A DOJ spokesperson said the department requested information from the sheriff’s departments in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Riverside and San Diego counties. However, by Thursday evening, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office said that it had yet to receive a request from the DOJ.
A sheriff’s spokesperson did not elaborate further on whether the office would comply with such a request if received. The spokesperson instead pointed to a website explaining the office’s compliance under SB 54.
San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez said earlier this month that she is cooperating with ICE under the narrow constraints of the law. That lawful cooperation includes transferring people from county jails into federal custody if they have specific convictions on their record or there is a federal warrant for their arrest.
Her stance is at odds with the county Board of Supervisors, which passed a resolution late last year with a 3-1 vote to prohibit deputies from assisting ICE in any way, even in transferring noncitizen inmates, unless there is a warrant or court order. Despite the vote, Martinez insisted that she would continue to follow state law, which still permits some cooperation.
At a news conference on Thursday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said his agency had also not officially received a request, but he said he would not violate state law.
“We will only transfer an individual into ICE custody if we are presented with a federal judicial warrant that’s signed by a judge,” Luna said. “That is consistent with California law and county policy.”
Erin Tsurumoto Grassi, the associate director of the nonprofit Alliance San Diego, believes that the administration’s request conflicts with both state law and the county policy.
“The County of San Diego passed a policy that prohibits our local resources from being used for immigration enforcement, and it requires there to be a warrant for any information like release dates or transfers to actually happen,” she said. “So as far as we’re concerned, a request is not a warrant.”
Tsurumoto Grassi criticized the Trump administration for what she believes to be an attempt to “circumvent the California Values Act.”
“They are trying to deport our community members,” she said. “That’s really what it comes down to. But SB 54 was defended under the first administration, and it was successfully defended in courts.”
Last year, before President Donald Trump took office, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office transferred 30 people from jail to federal custody. While more recent data is not available, Martinez said earlier this month that she’s seen a marked increase this year in the number of federal warrants seeking to have suspected immigrants in jail transferred to federal custody.