An internal investigation is underway at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department after surveillance footage captured two department employees briefly speaking with federal immigration agents shortly before a man was detained while leaving the jail.
The department said in a written statement that it had received a complaint early this month about the Halloween incident alleging that the two employees may have alerted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, enabling them to detain the man.
The department said it had launched an internal investigation to determine if the employees had violated state law or department policy.
A state law called the California Values Act prohibits local police and sheriff’s departmentsfrom using public resources to help enforce federal immigration laws, such as detaining people solely for immigration purposes or sharing certain personal information with ICE. The law allows limited exceptions, including cooperation involving people convicted of certain crimes.
The department identified the two employees only by title. They said one was a deputy and the other was a sheriff’s special officer.
An internal review found that surveillance video from the Oct. 31 incident showed ICE agents parked on a public street outside the Orange County Jail in an unmarked black SUV.
The deputy and special officer are seen exiting the sheriff’s building before approaching the black SUV, and engaging in what appeared to be a five second conversation with the agents inside the vehicle, video released Friday by the department shows. Footage shows a man who appears startled jogging to a corner of the courtyard and standing and waiting as federal agents approach and then arrest him.
“Shortly after the deputy and sheriff’s special officer left, a second vehicle arrived,” the department’s statement read. “ICE agents exited both vehicles and entered the public courtyard outside the visitor’s entrance. The ICE agents contacted and arrested a man who appeared to be hiding in the public courtyard.”
News outlet NBCLA reportedthat the man taken into custody by ICE had been visiting his son at the Men’s Central Jail. A family member identified the man as Jesús Esparza to Telemundo 52 earlier this month.
His daughter, Adriana Esparza, told Telemundo 52 that her father had called her from the jail saying ICE was outside and hung up just after telling her they were capturing him. The Times could not immediately get in touch with Esparza’s family.
His daughter set up a GoFundMe campaign earlier this month to raise money for an immigration attorney. She wrote in the online fundraiser that after her mother’s passing, her father had became the sole head of household supporting her younger brother.
“We are brokenhearted about the situation we are in,” she wrote in Spanish.
The department said upon receiving the complaint it immediately opened a personnel investigation into the conduct of the employees and placed both of them on administrative leave.
“Securing the border and enforcing immigration law are important federal responsibilities,” said Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes. “The Orange County Sheriff’s Department does not enforce federal immigration law. That has not and will not change.”
Barnes said the department will cooperate with ICE to the extent the law allows to prevent serious criminal offenders from returning to communities they have preyed on.
“We will enforce state and local laws equally, without bias, and without concern for anyone’s citizenship,” Barnes said. “I want the community to continue to feel safe in calling for assistance, reporting crime and visiting the jail regardless of their immigration status.”
The post O.C. Sheriff probes whether employees alerted ICE before man’s arrest appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
