Riverside County deputies will not perform “any type of immigration enforcement,” Sheriff Chad Bianco said, as fear among local immigrant communities has increased due to intensifying raids during the first weeks of the Trump administration.
In a video posted to social media Thursday, Bianco said his deputies “have not, are not and will not engage” in immigration enforcement, and pushed back at those claiming personnel from the Sheriff’s Office’s 4,000-member staff were actively involved in such operations.
“There has been an alarming increase in the concern over law enforcement and immigration,” he said. “Most of this is being caused by misinformation and fear mongering from dishonest politicians, social media, immigration activists and even disingenuous headlines from the media.”
Immigrant enforcement is the sole responsibility of the federal government, Bianco said, and rumors of Riverside County deputies conducting raids at county schools, businesses and churches “are simply not true.”
Bianco, a Republican and potential candidate for governor, did not specifically identify the individuals, organizations or outlets to which he was referring in his video message.
Bianco’s message comes as Border Patrol agents have conducted raids throughout the state this year, even before President Trump took office. One operation that began Jan. 7 resulted in 78 arrests in Bakersfield.
The raids have sparked outrage throughout Southern California, including days of protests in Los Angeles.
California’s sanctuary law, known as Senate Bill 54, was approved in 2017 and bars local law enforcement agencies from using public money to play a direct role in immigration enforcement. It also prohibits police from transferring people to immigration authorities except in certain cases, such as when people have been convicted of certain violent felonies and misdemeanors.
In an interview with Fox 11 L.A. in November, Bianco said he “will do everything in my power to make sure that I can keep the residents of Riverside County safe. If that involves working somehow around SB 54 with ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] so that we can deport these people that are victimizing us and victimizing my residents, you … can be sure that I’m going to do that.”
Bianco said the legislation drove a wedge between immigrant communities and law enforcement, and emphasized his deputies do not ask about immigration status when speaking with victims.
In his message Thursday, Bianco said he would “continue to fight to reform an extremely dangerous sanctuary state law forced upon us by reckless politicians that forces federal immigration officials from ICE into our communities to find these criminals, rather than removing them from the safety of our county jails.”
On Jan. 28, Riverside County’s Board of Supervisors approved a motion directing the county’s executive officer and county counsel to evaluate how data for the county’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, recipients and “law abiding” undocumented immigrants is collected, managed and stored. It also directs county personnel to evaluate existing and potential new funding sources to support undocumented immigrants who face deportation.
County officials are supposed to report back to the board on Feb. 25.
Bianco was not present for the meeting, according to the Desert Sun, but wrote an email in which he admonished the board, saying they “should be working to ensure that county government is here to protect all residents, (not causing) a political divide.”
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