California jails failed to honor more than 13,000 ICE detainers over 2½ years, significantly affecting enforcement of federal immigration law and public safety, according to newly released Immigration and Customs Enforcement records, Breitbart reported.
New records show that Golden State jails did not comply with over 13,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer requests between October 2022 and February 2025. The documents, reviewed by the Center for Immigration Studies, highlight California as the state most frequently refusing to cooperate with federal immigration officials.
An ICE detainer asks local or state law enforcement to hold those under arrest for up to 48 hours after their scheduled release, allowing ICE to take custody for potential deportation. CIS said, "More than half of the declined detainers (52%) were refused by jails and prisons in California."
Santa Clara County's main jail notably released nearly 3,000 people without adequately notifying ICE, the highest number of any jurisdiction in the report. The jail also released six individuals with homicide convictions, matching the Illinois River Corrections Center's tally. Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois released five.
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at CIS, emphasized the consequences on public safety.
"To those wondering why ICE has to operate on the streets of Los Angeles to arrest criminal aliens, it's because California jails have failed to honor more than 13,000 detainers in the last 2.5 years," Vaughan posted on X.
Eleven states and the District of Columbia have declared themselves "sanctuary states," limiting local law enforcement's cooperation with ICE. California, the largest sanctuary state with nearly 40 million residents, enacted its sanctuary status in October 2017 under then-Gov. Jerry Brown.
Opposition within California includes lawsuits and ordinances from at least 16 Southern California cities and counties, the Federation for American Immigration Reform reported.
Other states with notable refusal rates include Illinois, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Connecticut.
Illinois expanded its sanctuary policies in 2019 under Gov. JB Pritzker, limiting cooperation with ICE significantly.
New Jersey's sanctuary status, established via a directive from then-state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal in 2019, represented a unique instance of sanctuary status established by executive action rather than legislative measures.
Massachusetts became a de facto sanctuary state through a judicial ruling in 2017, increasing its illegal immigrant population notably between 2007 and 2017, NBC 10 Boston reported. Local measures such as Cambridge's law restricting police actions against undocumented drivers have further limited cooperation.
These sanctuary jurisdictions collectively refused more than 25,000 ICE detainers, with over 1,400 cases lacking adequate notification to ICE, complicating federal immigration operations.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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