{"id":237596,"date":"2026-03-26T14:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T14:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/237596\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T14:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T14:28:08","slug":"oc-referred-271-inmates-to-ice-after-sentences-were-served-in-2025-advocates-push-to-end-local-cooperation-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/237596\/","title":{"rendered":"OC referred 271 inmates to ICE after sentences were served in 2025; advocates push to end local cooperation \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Department released 271 inmates last year to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a>, over 40% more than in 2024.<\/p>\n

Inmate transfers from the Sheriff\u2019s Department\u2019s custody to federal immigration authorities have risen steadily since 2022, and at least one county supervisor and several immigration rights advocates argued this week that the practice should stop.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, March 24, the OC Board of Supervisors held the annual community forum that is required by the state\u2019s Transparent Review of Unjust Transfers and Holds (TRUTH) Act to report on what access county law enforcement has given to ICE.<\/p>\n

Local immigrant rights organizers and Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento expressed anger and frustration over Sheriff Don Barnes\u2019<\/a> continued cooperation with federal agents, particularly as the community reels from the Trump administration\u2019s immigration raids.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Sheriff\u2019s Department, which operates the county\u2019s jails, screened 824 inmates with immigration holds and referred 323 to ICE \u2014 of those, 271 were transferred to ICE custody after they completed their jail time. In 2024, the department made 226 referrals<\/a> and 186 people were transferred into ICE custody when they finished serving their jail time. In 2023, there were just 17 transfers.<\/p>\n

Passed in 2017, the TRUTH Act is a state law<\/a> that requires immigrants be informed of their right to an attorney before being interviewed in custody by federal immigration agents. The Sheriff\u2019s Department must obtain inmates\u2019 written consent to be questioned by ICE and must alert them if they are to be taken into custody.<\/p>\n

At Tuesday\u2019s forum, immigration advocates called on the supervisors and Barnes to end all ICE transfers, which they said disproportionately affect Mexican, Vietnamese and Central American communities in OC. They urged county officials to follow the lead of their peers in Los Angeles County, who ended warrantless transfers in 2020.<\/p>\n

The transfers impact Mexican immigrants the most and Vietnamese residents, who constitute 16% of the county\u2019s foreign-born population, account for nearly one-third of people transferred to ICE, according to a new report <\/a>from the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cOrange County for a very long time has transferred and continues to transfer more people to ICE than any other county in the state,\u201d said Karen Hernandez, a volunteer with the OC Rapid Response Network. \u201cSheriff Don Barnes is a Deporter in Chief.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarmiento, whose Second District represents immigrant-dense neighborhoods in Santa Ana and Garden Grove, called ICE a \u201crogue agency\u201d that has ignored judicial orders and kept detainees in inhumane conditions, resulting in 32 in-custody deaths last year \u2014 the most in two decades. And in light of that, Orange County should reconsider releasing people into ICE custody, he said.<\/p>\n

Sarmiento said other counties where the sheriff\u2019s departments have chosen not to cooperate with ICE have not seen a notable uptick in crime. By ending transfers, the Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department saved $1.4 million in resources, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the moment to say: Why are other counties not seeing a spike in crime once they decide not to transfer folks?\u201d Sarmiento said. \u201cThat\u2019s the dilemma before us, just to ask that fundamental question: Are we safer as a result of this practice? That\u2019s something we\u2019ve struggled to show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnes disputed Sarmiento\u2019s argument that reducing ICE transfers would not meaningfully impact public safety. Of the 501 inmates with detainers who weren\u2019t referred to ICE, he noted that 55 were re-arrested for new offenses, including assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, driving under the influence and drug-related violations.<\/p>\n

\u201cNotifying federal authorities of the pending release of a dangerous offender and transferring that person to their custody is not the enforcement of immigration law,\u201d Barnes said in a statement Tuesday. \u201cThese offenders pose a significant risk to our communities and removing them is consistent with the department\u2019s mission to enhance public safety for all Orange County residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he did in 2024, Barnes also called for the repeal of SB 54, California\u2019s so-called sanctuary state law, arguing that cooperation between local officers and federal immigration authorities would be \u201csafer for everyone, law enforcement and the public alike.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Department released 271 inmates last year to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,14,1071,23,611,4765,136],"class_list":["post-237596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-california","tag-immigration","tag-local-government","tag-local-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orange-county-board-of-supervisors","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}