LA County jails begin transferring illegal immigrant criminals over to ICE

In May, eight illegal immigrant inmates were handed over to ICE, the LA Times reports, citing records from law enforcement. In June, there were over a dozen inmates given over to federal immigration authorities. 11 of the inmates were from Mexico, 6 from Guatemala, and there was one from Colombia, El Salvador, and Honduras each. The ages of the illegal immigrant inmates range from 19 to 63.

The LA County sheriff has not handed off inmates to ICE since around 2020, the outlet reports. In 2019, there were 457 illegal immigrant inmates given over to ICE under President Donald Trump's first term in the White House.

The Trump administration obtained a judicial warrant for each of the transfers with the exception of one, who was a “[p]erson extradited to United States to face criminal charges based on agreement between Department of Homeland Security (ICE) and LA County (District Attorney and Sheriff) to honor his immigration detainer."

Although there are sanctuary city policies in LA County, city officials claimed that each of the transfers were conducted under both federal and state law. “We have been monitoring sheriff messaging on ICE cooperation and it is our understanding that the recent transfers of prisoners to ICE are all in response to judicially issued warrants as required by federal and state law,” LA County Inspector General Max Huntsman said. “Despite ‘sanctuary’ rhetoric, we are unaware of any conflict between California and federal law on this requirement."

The sheriff's department said that with the judicial warrant, "state and county law/policy allow for cooperation" for ICE transfers. The department that the sheriff has not gotten similar warrants for "the past several years" under the Biden administration.