Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna mentioned Thursday that his division has “no selection” however to show inmates over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when it receives federal judicial warrants searching for the switch of inmates in its county jails.
Luna addressed what he described as widespread neighborhood considerations over the division’s insurance policies on cooperation with federal immigration authorities throughout a information convention on the Corridor of Justice. His remarks got here sooner or later after a report by The Instances revealed that in Could and June the Sheriff’s Division transferred 20 inmates to ICE in compliance with the warrants.
L.A. County Inspector Basic Max Huntsman and different authorized specialists mentioned federal legislation requires native legislation enforcement businesses to adjust to warrants issued by federal judges, which trump state and native “sanctuary” insurance policies aimed toward shielding immigrants from deportation. The warrants contain legal fees, the division mentioned, not civil immigration violations.
“It’s a federal judicial warrant signed by a choose. There’s no selection. Which means any individual has gone earlier than a choose to get an arrest warrant for them,” Luna mentioned.
He added that the inmates his division turned over have “received sufficient possible trigger to get an arrest warrant for they usually’ve dedicated, normally, a major crime,” akin to tried homicide, rape or theft. “This isn’t the ice cream vendor, the girl making tacos on the road.”
The sheriff additionally addressed an announcement launched by the U.S. Division of Justice on Thursday stating that it had “issued requests” to sheriffs in California counties together with Los Angeles and San Francisco counties asking them to offer lists of all inmates of their jails who usually are not U.S. residents, along with details about their legal histories and when they’re as a consequence of be launched.
The Justice Division mentioned within the assertion that it hopes the sheriffs will cooperate with the request voluntarily, however that “if mandatory, the Division will pursue all out there technique of acquiring the info, together with by way of subpoenas.”
Luna mentioned that “at the moment, we now have not formally obtained this letter. We’ve heard about it, however haven’t really seen it.”
“As soon as we obtain the letter, we’ll completely evaluate it to find out what data, if any, we are able to legally present,” he mentioned.
The sheriff famous that any potential effort to compile such an inventory could be sophisticated by the truth that his division doesn’t acquire details about individuals’s immigration standing when they’re booked into county jails, and that he doesn’t know if the company has the technical capability to compile such a roster.
Earlier Thursday, Luna mentioned on the month-to-month assembly of the L.A. County Civilian Oversight Fee that when “you get booked, processed and also you get Livescanned, that’s a nationwide system, so brokers of the federal authorities will know you’re in custody. So it’s not that we’re notifying them, it’s an computerized notification based mostly in your fingerprints.”
He mentioned in the course of the Thursday information convention that he believes ICE makes use of data gathered throughout that reserving course of to compile lists of individuals to challenge civil immigration detainers for.
Underneath sanctuary insurance policies, the Sheriff’s Division is legally barred from handing over inmates in response to so-called detainers, or ICE requests to carry an individual for potential deportation.
Luna mentioned that in 2024, his division obtained “995 civil detainer requests from ICE and didn’t adjust to any of them as a result of that will violate each state legislation and county coverage.”
Luna additionally supplied repeated reassurances to county residents who’ve raised considerations in regards to the unsubstantiated prospect that the Sheriff’s Division is partaking in wider cooperation with ICE.
He mentioned that he personally believes “we should always all be involved” about “federal brokers both chasing individuals round a automobile wash or a Residence Depot,” and that his division doesn’t help ICE in these sorts of avenue operations, which have instilled deep concern in immigrant communities throughout L.A. County since they started final month.
“I fully perceive the priority, the concern and anxiousness from our neighborhood right here in Los Angeles County,” he mentioned. “We don’t honor ICE detainers or requests for transfers. We don’t permit immigration officers to function inside our amenities, and we don’t allow the usage of county property databases or personnel by ICE.”
