State to review jails’ work with ICE
Legislature approves comprehensive audit of how immigration policies are enforced.
SACRAMENTO — California state auditors will soon begin a detailed examination of city and county jails that have formal partnerships with federal immigration agents — including how much local agencies are paid and whether holding immigrants has forced the early release of other inmates.
The audit was approved last week by a joint panel of the California Legislature. Supporters said it will be the first comprehensive look at the immigration enforcement activities playing out in as many as a dozen jails in the state.
“We simply do not have the details that can piece together the big picture of this practice,” said state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), the lawmaker who requested the audit. “The data is important to provide transparency and accountability.”
The investigation will include an accounting of federal dollars paid to the law enforcement agencies and whether local or state funds are also used to subsidize the detention of those who are believed to be in the U.S. illegally. Lara’s request also seeks information on whether immigrant detainees “contribute to increased jail population or overcrowding.”
To date, information about local partnership agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been revealed only through public records requests.
County sheriffs are in the middle of the heated debate over how to respond to increased efforts to combat illegal immigration. California’s so-called sanctuary law, enacted this year, places new restrictions on collaboration between local authorities and federal immigration agents.
The audit also seeks information about the total number and ages of people held in local jails the last five years while they waited for immigration proceedings. It also would require the disclosure of information related to immigrants who died while in custody.
State Auditor Elaine Howle told legislators her staff would probably include in the audit two Orange County jails that were singled out in a 2017 report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general.
California officials have responsibility for oversight of local jails; but that oversight does not include data collection about enforcement of agreements made regarding cooperation on immigration-related offenses, Lara said.
“The Legislature knows almost nothing about these activities,” he said Wednesday.
Republicans on the legislative audit committee raised concerns about whether the effort might duplicate the investigation underway by the state attorney general’s office into the standard of care for immigrants in local jails. That effort is scheduled to be complete next spring.