Even so-called “sanctuary” communities, which aim to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation, are at odds over when to cooperate with federal immigration officials. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE, often seeks assistance from local law enforcement agencies to find and deport those who are undocumented, however, an NBC Bay Area investigation reveals how those requests are met with varied responses across the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. Some local law enforcement agencies, for example, consistently refuse to help ICE, even in cases where the deportation involves individuals who have a history of committing serious and violent crimes.
“I think that we have a balance right now between public safety and the interests in our community,” said San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, whose department chooses to cooperate with ICE only in rare cases.
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WATCH HERE“We can't just say, unequivocally, no cooperation at all.”
We can't just say, unequivocally, no cooperation at all.
San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, speaking about his willingness to comply with certain ICE requests regarding inmates at county jail
In California, state law limits just how much help local law enforcement can offer federal immigration officials. In certain cases, however, counties still have the power to decide when to cooperate. As the Investigative Unit uncovered, that compliance can vary widely.
One of the most common ways ICE tries to lean on local law enforcement is through what is known as a ‘civil detainer request,’ which is when ICE asks for advance notice from jails and prisons about the release date of an inmate. Federal immigration officials already have access to who is behind bars and that person’s immigration status, but ICE needs help from local enforcement to know when those individuals will be set free, so agents can be there to detain them.
Bay Area only complied with 9% of ICE 'detainer' requests last year
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SIGN UP Across the Bay Area, ICE made 2,338 civil detainer requests last year, however, local law enforcement, rarely complied – giving ICE answers in just 9% of cases, according to data collected and tabulated by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit.
Two of the Bay Area’s nine counties could not provide the relevant data. The Napa County Corrections Dept. said it was unable to hand over the figures because it was still tabulating last year’s records, while the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office said it previously wasn’t tracking such information but noted it did begin doing so just last month.
“During my entire time as sheriff, we've had close to 3,000 requests,” Miyamoto said, who was first sworn in as San Francisco’s top law enforcement officer in 2020. “Out of all of those requests that I've received in my tenure as sheriff, I've notified ICE once in that time.”
That’s because San Francisco will, generally, only cooperate if the person ICE wants has been previously convicted of a heinous crime.
“This individual has to have a history of a conviction of a violent felony within seven years, a conviction of a serious felony within five years, or three separate convictions on three separate felonies within five years,” Miyamoto said.
“We're identifying the most serious violent felons and notifying ICE, if they meet the criteria.”
Miyamoto is quick to note that even when his department notified ICE of the inmate’s upcoming release from jail, federal agents never showed up to detain the individual, who had a long criminal history involving violence and firearms.
“I believe that they were so surprised that San Francisco actually notified them that they weren't prepared to send somebody over to pick the person up from custody,” he said.
When do Bay Area counties help ICE deport undocumented immigrants?
The Investigative Unit reviewed policies for each of the nine counties in the Bay Area and found San Francisco is one of six that will comply with ICE detainer requests if the inmate has been convicted of a serious crime. Three other counties – Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara – do not respond to such requests under any circumstances, regardless of the inmate’s criminal history.
While San Francisco’s policy only allows for compliance with ICE in rare cases, Miyamoto says even more staunch protocols, in neighboring counties, could be putting public safety at risk.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Ultimately, criminals affect all of our communities, including our immigrant community.”
Blanket refusals to comply with ICE detainer requests remain common practice across Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties.
“It's the right side for this county,” said Santa Clara County Sheriff Bob Jonsen, who was the only one in the trio to agree to an interview.
Jonsen says those protocols are in place so that people feel safe reporting crimes, regardless of their immigration status.
“That trust is extremely important in working with our community,” he said. “I think the federal administration…they have a role and I'm not going to impede them, I'm not going to stop them from doing their job.”
ICE often relies on aid from local law enforcement – here's how
ICE utilizes a variety of ways to gain cooperation from local law enforcement agencies. For example, a federal law, dating back roughly 30 years, allows ICE to deputize state and local officers to enforce federal immigration laws. Agencies must first apply and get training in order to qualify. It is known as the 287(g) program, and while the Investigative Unit has learned California doesn’t have a single agency involved, 38 other states do – boasting more than 450 agreements between their own law enforcement agencies and ICE, allowing local officers to enforce federal immigration laws.
“You could have two neighboring counties with diametrically opposite immigration policies determined by the politics of the county,” said Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute who has been studying immigration policy for nearly 40 years.
“What we have, essentially, is like Swiss cheese.”
Despite the patchwork, Chishti notes that municipalities across the country are legally obligated to cooperate with ICE and regularly do, at some level, even if they choose not to comply with certain requests.
“There's not a single jurisdiction in the country, however liberal, which says that it will never cooperate with ICE,” he said. “It's only about the degrees of cooperation."
There's not a single jurisdiction in the country, however liberal, which says that it will never cooperate with ICE.
Muzaffar Chishti, senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute
ICE, on its website, also notes another type of ‘civil retainer request,’ which involves asking jails and prisons to detain inmates past their release date, so that federal agents can arrange to take custody of individuals believed to be undocumented. In California, corrections facilities and sheriff’s departments are prohibited from adhering to such requests, unless ICE obtains a criminal warrant that shows the individual is wanted for a new crime.
Those criminal warrants, signed by a judge, would legally compel local law enforcement agencies to comply, however, if the person’s only offense is being undocumented, that is generally considered a civil violation, not criminal. In those cases, Jonsen says ICE is on its own, even if that person may have previously been found guilty of particularly heinous crimes.
“To me, it's simple, really, and we've told this to ICE before – if they really want somebody, they can actually give an arrest warrant for that person,” Jonsen explained. “Then, we're going to have to comply.”
So far this year, Jonsen says his department has received more than 60 detainer requests from ICE but hasn’t complied with any of them. As for how many of those requests involved inmates with a history of serious or violent felonies, his department isn’t exactly sure because it only just started tracking that information.
“There's probably going to be maybe just a handful,” he estimated.
“For the most part, we have not really been analyzing our detainers because it was just a process that we had in place and there was going to be absolutely no compliance.”
For the most part, we have not really been analyzing our detainers because it was just a process that we had in place and there was going to be absolutely no compliance.
Sheriff Bob Jonsen, Santa Clara County
When pressed on why his department hadn’t already been tracking the figures, Jonsen said “I don't think any of the sheriffs were really looking into it all that much until the recent administration.”
President Trump has, repeatedly, vowed to end sanctuary cities. On social media earlier this month, Trump wrote sanctuary cities “protect criminals, not victims,” and even described them as “death traps.”
His administration is currently suing the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago, alleging their policies “interfere with…federal immigration law” since they “restrict information sharing” with ICE agents.
“It is putting sheriffs in a position none of us want to be in,” Jonsen said.
“Our oath actually requires us to … adhere to the constitution of the State of California and to the constitution of the United States,” he said. “And here we are – we're having to choose between which constitution we're going to adhere to.”
Jonsen cited Trump’s ongoing criticism of “sanctuary” communities as one reason to, potentially, increase cooperation between his department and federal immigration officials in the future.
“At some point, if I have to make that tough decision that may not be in the best interest of some community members, but it is in the greater interest for all community members, then I'll make that decision,” he said.
“I'm going to try to take an approach that best serves this community in whichever direction that takes us.”
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