The United States Department of Justice asked the California counties to provide lists of all inmates in their prisons who are not US citizens, as well as the crimes that have been accused or convicted and their scheduled release dates.
The Department of Justice said in a statement that their “data requests” to the counties, including the counties of Los Angeles and San Francisco, were “designed to help federal immigration authorities to prioritize the elimination of illegal foreigners who committed crimes after illegally entering the United States.”
Applications add another layer to the Trump administration warfare with California for the state and local immigration policy and laws. Immigration and compliance agents of the United States have been invading the region making thousands of arrests as part of President Trump's call for mass deportations, and the Department of Justice is already demanding the city of Los Angeles for its sanctuary policy.
State officials have long defended the Sanctuary Policies of California, which generally prohibit local authorities to enforce civil immigration laws, but provide exceptions in cases involving criminal crimes. They have also criticized administration and ice agents for their recent arrest tactics in southern California, even citing figures that show that most of those arrested did not have criminal convictions.
The immediate impact would have the demands, and if they would cause a legal challenge of the State or the counties, it was not clear immediately. California Atty. General Rob Bonta's office did not immediately respond to a comment request.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's department recently resumed the transfer of some inmates to ice prison for the first time in years, citing criminal exceptions to state and local sanctuary laws.
A spokesman for the County of the La Selected questions about the request to the Sheriff's department.
When asked about the application during a meeting of the Civil Supervision Commission on Thursday morning, the Sheriff of the Los Angeles County, Robert Luna, said that the information about all the county inmates is already publicly available on the department's website.
“At the moment they reserve, process you and get lives, that is a national system, so federal government agents will know that you are in custody,” he said. “So we are not notifying them, it is an automatic notification based on their digital footprints.”
The Department of Justice said that the counties would voluntarily comply with their requests. But if they do not, he said, “I would look for all the means available to obtain the data, even through citations or other mandatory process.”
He said that while “each illegal foreigner by definition violates the federal law, those who commit crimes after doing so show that they represent a high risk for the security and security of our nation.”
Not all citizens in the United States are in the country illegally, since there are permanent non -citizen residents and other visas holders. However, as part of its immigration repression, the Trump administration has also given greater scrutiny to people in those categories.
Atty General Pam Bondi, in his own statement on applications, said that eliminating the country's “illegal foreigners” was the “highest priority” of the administration.
“I hope to cooperate with the California County Sheriffs to fulfill our shared duty to keep the Californians and all the safe Americans,” Bondi said.
In May, the department of Luna transferred to the inmates of their prisons to ICE for the first time since the beginning of 2020. Between May and June, the department delivered 20 inmates to the federal agency.
At Thursday's supervision meeting, Luna said the department received 995 Civil Detention requests from ICE in 2024, and that he did not comply with any of them, which is not legally obliged to do. But he said that the department had to deliver to the 20 inmates because he received federal judicial orders from the federal authorities for each of them.
He said he expected such orders to increase, which would increase the number of inmates delivered.
“Those are legal documents signed by a judge. We cannot deny them,” he said.
Max Huntsman, the County Inspector and other experts have said that the department of the Sheriff is obliged to the federal and state law that complies with the arrest orders, and the process is legal under state and local sanctuary policies.
Times staff writers Rebecca Ellis and Rachel Uranga contributed to this report.
