Supervisors ask no questions, make no comment while O.C. Sheriff talks about his agency’s relationship with ICE

Immigrant rights advocates expressed frustration Tuesday when county supervisors failed to ask a single question or make a comment during a public forum about the Orange County Sheriff Department’s dealing with federal immigration agents.

Some of the complaints expressed by advocates – lack of transparency by the Sheriff’s Dept. and little accountability – were similar to ones aired last December, when the Board of Supervisors aired their first-ever local forum required by a California law called the Transparent Review of Unjust Transfers and Holds (the TRUTH Act.)

“It was disheartening, but at the same time, not surprising,” said Ana Ramirez Zarate, of Resilience Orange County, a youth-centered social justice group.

But unlike December’s forum, which Supervisor Andrew Do ended before Sheriff Don Barnes could make a presentation, the sheriff got his say Tuesday after immigrant-rights advocates addressed the board.

Barnes said deputies in his department do not ask people about their immigration status. He also said his department “does not engage in immigration enforcement,” that the department cooperates with federal immigration authorities “where the law allows,” and that the agency “fully” exercises its discretion to notify and transfer serious offenders.

The sheriff repeated his previously stated opposition to California’s controversial sanctuary law, SB-54, which restricts cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration agents.

“Laws like SB 54 makes us less safe,” Barnes said.

In 2018, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) asked the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to notify them of the release of 1,823 inmates once their time was up, Barnes said. Of those, 717 inmates were transferred to the federal agency.

But state laws restricted the department from notifying ICE about the remaining 1,106 inmates, who were released into the community. Barnes said that 173 of the released inmates later were rearrested in Orange County for 58 different types of crimes, including “attempted murder, assault and battery, child molestation and robbery.” (The Sheriff’s Department could not provide similar statistics for its overall inmate population.)

Immigrant-rights advocates argue that local officials have yet to hold a meaningful forum and provide adequate information, including a breakdown of who is and who isn’t being transferred.  The TRUTH Act, which became effective Jan. 1, 2017, requires community forums be held each year to give the public information about what access ICE gets from local law enforcement.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department, according to immigrant-rights advocates, also is one of several law enforcement agencies going around state law that limits notifications to ICE by publishing the release dates of all inmates. By making the information readily available to the public, it is indirectly notifying ICE, they said.

Tuesday’s forum ended with cries of “shame, shame” from the audience when the Board of Supervisors quietly voted to receive and file the information, without asking questions or offering any input.

“The lack of interest this board has in being open and transparent about the information, which is the focus of this hearing, is astounding,” Rossmoor resident Joel Block told the board. Block is a member of Los Alamitos Community United, an organization that sprung up last year in reaction to that city’s vote to opt out of the state sanctuary state law.

Advocates from various immigrant-rights and faith organizations, including VietRise and the Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice, also expressed concern about the fate of another batch of immigrants – people who have been detained while they go through the immigration court process.

Last month, Barnes announced that as of Aug. 1 Orange County will stop holding civilian immigrant detainees, including asylum seekers, who are not charged with non-immigration crimes, now held at the James A. Musick and Theo Lacy facilities. Since then, the number of immigrant detainees at the two jails has fallen. It’s unclear where they are being transferred to, and ICE officials have refused to say.

At least some were transferred last Friday to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County, said Annie Lai, co-director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at UC Irvine.

On Tuesday, there were 458 civilian immigrant detainees left at Theo Lacy and Musick, according to an Orange County Sheriff’s spokewoman. In March, those facilities held more than 700 detainees.

Southern California  facilities that hold civilian immigrant detainees, like Theo Lacy and Adelanto, have come under fire not only from immigrant-rights and civil rights organizations but from state and federal agencies. Those who run the local facilities have said that concerns were addressed and problems rectified.