The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday issued requests for data to “multiple” California sheriffs about any migrants they were holding in their county jails, including in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The announcement by Attorney General Pamela Bondi opened a contentious new front in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, in a state that largely blocks law enforcement officers’ cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Specifically, the Department of Justice said it sought “lists of all inmates in their jails who are not citizens of the United States, their crimes of arrest or conviction, and their scheduled release dates.”
In an unattributed statement, the Department of Justice said it sought the information from the sheriff’s offices in four counties: San Francisco, San Diego, Riverside and Los Angeles.
Requests for comment sent by this news organization Thursday to sheriff’s offices in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Contra Costa counties were not immediately returned. Spokespeople for the Alameda and Marin county sheriff’s offices said their agencies had not received any such requests.
The federal agency’s press release also warned that the Department of Justice “will pursue all available means of obtaining the data, including through subpoenas or other compulsory process,” if the sheriff’s don’t cooperate.
The decision drew an immediate pushback from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who issue a statement stressing that “President Trump and his Department of Justice cannot bully our local law enforcement into breaking the law.”
He referenced Senate Bill 54, which was passed in 2017 and significantly limited the ability for law enforcement officers across the state to cooperate with immigration agents. While the law allows county sheriffs to transfer inmates to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, if presented with an arrest warrant, “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,” Bonta said Thursday.
“We will review this directive and monitor its implementation for compliance with the law,” Bonta said.
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The request from the DOJ came on the same day that Attorney General Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited San Francisco’s Alcatraz Island. President Trump said earlier this year that he was considering re-opening the decrepit facility, which has been closed as a prison for decades, to house undocumented immigrants awaiting deportation.
Prior to Trump’s inauguration in January, some law enforcement agencies struck a defiant tone as the specter of Trump’s immigration crackdown drew near.
“We believe that by not inquiring about an individual’s immigration status, or collaborating with ICE, we can build stronger, more trusting relationships within our community,” said Santa Clara County Sheriff Robert Jonsen in January.
The law was among multiple pieces of legislation passed during Trump’s first presidential term that aimed to limit the ability for federal immigration authorities to operate in the state. Another law passed that protected workers from immigration raids at their jobs. And other legislative provisions scrutinized how public and private immigration detention centers contract with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement when authorities are seeking space for immigration detainees.
