The U.S. Department of Justice is asking California sheriff’s departments to turn over lists of all jails inmates who are not citizens, their crimes and their scheduled release dates to assist federal immigration authorities in removing “illegal aliens who committed crimes” after entering the country, according to an announcement by the federal agency.
The data requests went out to sheriffs in “multiple major California counties,” including Los Angeles and San Francisco, on Thursday, July 17, the announcement states.
“Removing criminal illegal aliens is this Administration’s highest priority,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “I look forward to cooperating with California’s county sheriffs to accomplish our shared duty of keeping Californians and all Americans safe and secure.”
The Department of Justice stated it “hopes that California sheriffs will voluntarily produce the requested information,” but also warned that it would “pursue all available means of obtaining the data, including through subpoenas or other compulsory process.”
The new requests mark the latest battle between the federal government and California over their opposing immigration policies.
The state, known for its sanctuary cities and counties, passed a law in 2017, the California Values Act, that largely prohibits cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities without a court order. Many of the most populous counties and major cities, including Los Angeles, have enshrined similar laws and policies locally.
Andrés Kwon, senior policy counsel and organizer with the ACLU SoCal, said the DOJ’s action “opens the possibility for sheriffs across the state to violate, if not the letter, the spirit and intent of the California Values Act.”
The California Attorney General’s Office, in a statement in response to Bondi’s announcement, fired back that it would review the federal agency’s request and “monitor its implementation for compliance with the law.”
“President Trump and his Department of Justice cannot bully our local law enforcement into breaking the law,” the statement reads. “The California Values Act — or SB 54 — ensures that our limited state and local resources are focused on public safety, not immigration enforcement, and promotes vital community trust in local law enforcement.
“SB 54 allows county jails to transfer an individual into ICE custody if ICE presents a criminal arrest warrant for a violation of a federal criminal immigration law, but it does not allow for the wholesale notification to DOJ of individuals housed in county jails, regardless of whether or not they have even been found guilty of a crime.”
Kathryn Barger, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said she would work closely with county counsel and the Sheriff’s Department to evaluate the “scope of this request and determine how best to move forward in a manner that protects public safety, respects due process, and complies with all legal requirements.”
“I support the deportation of individuals who are in this country illegally and have committed violent crimes — our laws must be enforced, and public safety must remain a top priority,” she stated. “At the same time, we must take a balanced, compassionate, and lawful approach that upholds state and federal law without creating fear among our immigrant communities who are following the rules and contributing to our county.”
A copy of the letter sent to Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna included a warning suggesting that the U.S. Department of Justice would seek to use the terms of past consent decrees against L.A. County’s jails to ensure it provides the immigration data.
“I also remind you that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is currently subject to multiple judicially enforceable settlement agreements with the Department of Justice that require you to provide access to certain documents and data upon request, including one that requires you to give the Department of Justice ‘full and complete access to the jails’ and to certain jail-related documents and data,” Bondi wrote in her letter to Luna.
The federal agency and Los Angeles County entered into a settlement agreement in 2015 requiring the Sheriff’s Department to implement reforms that would protect prisoners from suicide risks and excessive force within the jails. The enhanced data collection mandated under that agreement does not include anything related to immigration.
Supervisor Hilda Solis said in a statement that Los Angeles County “will not be pressured by the Trump Administration into actions that violate SB 54, the California Values Act, and County policy, or compromise the principles of due process and equal treatment under the law.”
During a press conference Thursday, Luna said he had not officially seen the letter yet and would need to review it with county counsel to determine how LASD responds. The department does not know how many inmates in its custody are undocumented immigrants.
“Because we don’t ask somebody if they’re here legally or illegally, it would be impossible for us to provide a list like that unless we redo our system one way or another,” he said.
He noted that he has already received multiple threatening letters from DOJ stating that he could be arrested criminally if his agency does not assist immigration authorities.
The Sheriff’s Department cooperates with ICE only when it receives a federal arrest warrant signed by a judge, he said. The agency complies fully with the California Values Act and the county’s policy, which “prohibits local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration officials, except under very specific and lawful circumstances,” he said. The agency does not honor requests from ICE to detain individuals for immigration violations.
In 2024, the department received 995 civil detainer requests and, so far this year, 435 from ICE and did not comply with any of them, Luna said.
The department “cannot do our jobs” without the trust of the public, he said.
“And as a matter of fact, that is something that greatly concerns all of us, because we don’t want people to stop calling us when they see something that occurs, or, worse yet, they’re a victim of a crime because they believe that we are involved in some immigration enforcement,” he said.
However, anyone arrested by the agency does have their fingerprints scanned into a federal database and the release dates for inmates are publicly accessible on LASD’s website, he said. Luna also acknowledged that L.A. County does turn over inmates to federal authorities, but only if a court-approved warrant is obtained.
“This isn’t the ice cream vendor, this isn’t the lady making tacos on the street, this is somebody who has committed a violent or serious crime,” Luna said.
Luna also criticized the federal government for sending officers to chase “people around a car wash or Home Depot.” “That’s something we should all be concerned about,” he said.
It is unclear which other counties were contacted by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Neither San Bernardino nor Riverside counties had received any requests from the federal agency. In a statement, San Bernardino County indicated it would “respond accordingly” if it does.