California Counties Say "No" to ICE

Two weeks ago, President Obama dealt a huge blow to immigration advocates: he announced that his Administration would once again delay a review of its deportation practices. Advocates, including the ACLU, have consistently urged the Obama administration to reform the immigration enforcement machinery that has led to the deportation of over 2 million immigrants, many of whom were denied fundamental rights like the right to due process.

But while we await much-needed reforms, another movement is sweeping the country. Dozens of counties are quickly ending the practice of participating in federal immigration enforcement. 

One of the primary tools that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) uses to detain and deport so many immigrants is immigration detainers. Detainers are requests ICE sends to local jails asking them to continue detaining immigrants for extra time at local expense. Most counties have historically cooperated even though that detainers are simply favors ICE is asking of local law enforcement and their use has severe consequences for community trust and safety. In fact, the use of ICE detainers has led to the deportation of over 100,000 Californians.

After experiencing the negative impacts of detainers, many Californians organized and spoke out. Ruth Montaño, a farmworker from Bakersfield and mother of three, was detained for a week because of an ICE detainer after she was arrested on charges that her dogs were barking too loudly. As a result of community activism, California passed the TRUST Act, prohibiting all 58 counties in California from responding to ICE detainers in many, but not all, circumstances. The TRUST Act protects immigrants like Ruth from being turned over to ICE.

And just one month ago, on April 11th, a federal district court in Portland Oregon went one step further when it issued a decision in the case of Maria Miranda-Olivares v Clackamas County.  The court made it very clear that immigration detainers by themselves do not establish the probable cause necessary to allow jails to prolong a person’s detention under the Fourth Amendment. What’s more, the court also established that doing so left counties liable for monetary damages. Since this decision, over 100 counties, including over 20 in California, have stopped honoring any ICE detainers. 

We applaud their quick action and effort to build on the protections afforded by the TRUST Act, but remain concerned about any violations of these policies. For example, yesterday the Sacramento County ACLU and our partners called on the Sheriff to honor his policy of not responding to any ICE detainers, after numerous TRUST Act violations were reported by the local community.

The ACLU of Northern California, our Chapters, and community partners will continue to actively monitor and enforce limits on the use of ICE detainers. We hope that the rest of California’s counties will join the trend recognizing the legal and policy pitfalls of immigration detainer requests and stop responding to them. After all, jailing community members for extra time like this isn’t only unconstitutional, it is simply not worth the risk.

Learn more

Map: California counties and ICE holds

Kiran Savage-Sangwan is an organizer with the ACLU of Northern California.