The Department of Justice asked sheriffs across California on Thursday to provide lists of inmates in state jails who are not U.S. citizens, and warned that if they did not voluntarily comply, the department would “pursue all available means of obtaining the data.”
The request from the Justice Department also asked for information on crimes the inmates committed and their scheduled release dates. The move comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been under pressure from the White House to increase its arrests of undocumented immigrants and after weeks of federal immigration raids across Southern California.
“Removing criminal illegal aliens is this administration’s highest priority,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement announcing the request. “I look forward to cooperating with California’s county sheriffs to accomplish our shared duty of keeping Californians and all Americans safe and secure.”
Andres Kwon, a senior policy lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said it was possible that any sheriff who complied with the request could be in violation of California’s so-called sanctuary state law, which bars the use of state and local resources from being used for federal immigration enforcement.
The law, which has been in effect since 2018, also prohibits police and sheriff departments from asking someone about their immigration status or sharing someone’s personal information with ICE or Border Patrol.
“Even the federal government has admitted that these requests to local law enforcement agencies are simply that — requests,” Mr. Kwon said. “Because if they’re commands, that would be in violation of the 10th Amendment,” which reserves for states any powers not explicitly granted to the federal government in the Constitution.
The California attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The largest sheriff’s agency in the country, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, signaled that it would not honor the request from the Justice Department.
“The only time the Sheriff’s Department transfers an individual into ICE custody is with a federal judicial warrant signed by a judge,” the department said. “Immigration officials are not in our facilities, and are prohibited from using county property, databases, and personnel unless there is a federal warrant.”
At least 20 inmates were released to ICE in the months of May and June, the agency said. Nineteen were subject to federal immigration judicial warrants. The other inmate was released to ICE based on an agreement between the Department of Homeland Security and the county district attorney’s office.
In San Francisco, Sheriff Paul Miyamoto said on Thursday that his department did not participate in civil immigration enforcement. “My priority is public safety — not politics — and we will not foster fear in immigrant communities by acting as an arm of immigration enforcement,” Sheriff Miyamoto said.
The city and county of San Francisco has been a sanctuary jurisdiction since 1989 and does not ask people for their immigration status in seeking health care at public hospitals and other activities. It also does not assist ICE agents with their investigations, detentions or arrests.
Daniel Lurie, the mayor of San Francisco, said Thursday that would not change. “Under San Francisco and California’s longstanding policies, local law enforcement does not participate in federal immigration enforcement,” said Charles Lutvak, a spokesman for Mr. Lurie’s office.
In the Los Angeles area, the request from the Justice Department could heighten tensions between local and federal officials over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. The raids have prompted fear and anxiety among immigrant communities across the region, with some residents saying they are too fearful to go to work or leave their home because of the possibility of being apprehended by immigration agents.
Mark González, a member of the California Assembly whose district includes part of Los Angeles County, called the request from the Justice Department “outrageous.”
“L.A. County jails should not be working with ICE — period,” Mr. González said.
Civil liberties and immigrant rights groups have sued the federal government in an attempt to stop the Los Angeles raids. Los Angeles County and other municipalities have sought to join the lawsuit. In a ruling in the case last week, a federal judge temporarily blocked the federal government from making indiscriminate immigration arrests in the Los Angeles area and directed agents to stop racial profiling when making the arrests.
The government asked an appeals court to lift the restrictions on immigration arrests, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday denied that request.
Heather Knight contributed reporting.
Jesus Jiménez is a Times reporter covering Southern California.
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