As Trump administration officials ramp up pressure on local law enforcement to cooperate with a national illegal immigration crackdown, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes on Monday said his department’s policy of focusing on state and local laws and leaving immigration enforcement to federal officials will not change.
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While Barnes expressed frustration at limits the state’s sanctuary laws place on local law enforcement’s ability to assist federal immigration enforcement agencies, the sheriff in a prepared statement made clear that “securing the border and enforcing immigration law are important responsibilities of the federal government,” and his department “does not enforce federal immigration law…
“The Orange County Sheriff’s Department will provide for your safety and respond to your calls for service regardless of your immigration status,” Barnes said. “We do not, and never will, ask the immigration status of victims, witnesses, suspects or those who call to report crimes. We enforce state and local laws equally, without bias, and without concern for your citizenship. That has not and will not change.”
While Barnes made clear that immigration law was not part of his department’s “primary vision,” he also wrote that “the crisis at our southern border has put our nation at risk…
“I have been a strong advocate for changes in policy and increased federal resources to address this threat,” Barnes wrote. “As the federal government fulfills this responsibility, it is important that local peace officers remain focused on the enforcement of state and local law.”
Barnes in his statement questioned limits state lawmakers have placed on law enforcement’s ability to work with federal law enforcement regarding suspected immigration violations.
“California state law hinders our ability to fully communicate with federal law enforcement partners on shared threats posed by criminal offenders who are in violation of immigration law,” Barnes wrote. “Sheriffs are limited under California Senate Bill 54 to only communicate with ICE regarding the release of criminal offenders from our custody facilities under very limited circumstances…
“I have chosen to cooperate with ICE to the fullest extent provided by the law in order to prevent serious offenders from returning to the communities they have preyed upon,” the sheriff added.
During his time on the campaign trail, Trump promised to carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history.” The full stakes of that operation remain to be seen. But it is expected to have an outsize impact on California, where, by some estimates, there are more undocumented immigrants than any other state.
Federal immigration officials have already begun carrying out well-publicized operations, though they have released few specifics regarding local arrests.
President Trump’s campaign to ramp up immigration enforcement has placed additional pressure on local sheriffs, whose job duties include running local jails.
When recently asked by CalMatters how they would respond to requests for additional cooperation with immigration enforcement, most sheriffs in California — including Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna and San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus — indicated they would comply with state law.
Luna, in his response to the news agency, wrote that his department “does not honor ICE requests/detainers or transfer individuals into the custody of ICE unless there is a federal judicial warrant signed by a judge.” Dicus — like Barnes — noted that state law “limits cooperation between local law enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
The outlier among local law enforcement leaders appears to be Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who recently told a local Fox News affiliate that he would be willing to help with possible mass deportation efforts under the new administration in order to “deport these people victimizing us and our residents.”
Barnes isn’t the first local law enforcement leader to clarify their policy regarding immigration enforcement. Santa Ana Police Chief Robert Rodriguez — whose oversees a community with an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 undocumented residents — previously indicated his department does not and will not participate in immigration enforcement activities.
Some local law enforcement leaders have raised concern that being forced to take part in federal immigration enforcement would prevent undocumented victims or witnesses from cooperating with their agencies. Barnes appeared to allude to those concerns in his statement, telling residents that “You are safe to contact the Orange County Sheriff’s Department when you need help.”
