“Current state law strikes the right balance between limiting local law enforcement’s cooperation with immigration authorities, ensuring public safety, and building community trust.”
On Tuesday, San Diego’s sheriff vowed to defy a new policy limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Earlier in the day, the San Diego County supervisors voted to prohibit its sheriff's department from working with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on enforcing immigration laws, including those that allow for deportations in line with California law that prohibits cooperation but allows exceptions for those convicted of certain violent crimes.
In response, San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez, whose office is nonpartisan but has identified as a Democrat, said the board does not set policy for her office and that she would not follow the new policy. The more stringent policy in San Diego mirrors seven other counties in California, including Los Angeles, where policies exceed state law.
Martinez said in a statement, “Current state law strikes the right balance between limiting local law enforcement's cooperation with immigration authorities, ensuring public safety, and building community trust.”
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View on XDue to the limited resources of ICE, the agency will have difficulty carrying out the mass deportations of illegal immigrants promised by President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming border czar Tom Homan. ICE will have to rely on local law enforcement especially in San Diego County, home to 3.3 million residents near the US border with Mexico.
Trump's border czar Tom Homan has previously called out San Diego as a location where the deportation plans could be complicated by “sanctuary” laws that restrict state and local governments from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. On Sunday, he told Fox News that laws denying ICE access to county jails “put the community at risk.”
The lone supervisor who dissented, Jim Desmond, said that San Diego’s new policy will protect violent criminals, citing the fatal shooting of 32-year-old Kate Steinle in San Francisco in 2015 and other high-profile attacks committed by illegal immigrants. He said, “These tragedies are preventable but sanctuary laws allow them to happen by allowing illegal criminals back into our communities instead of into the hands of ICE.” In a post on X, Desmond stated that "Today's outrageous decision to turn San Diego county into a 'super' sanctuary city is an affront to every law-abiding citizen who values safety and justice."
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