SAN JOSE — The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office has purged its policy manual of language that authorized broad cooperation with federal immigration officials and remained on the books well after county sanctuary laws rendered it moot.
In a training bulletin sent to all personnel, the sheriff’s office announced that it was rescinding a general order that was last updated in 2010 and outlined the agency’s stance on immigration enforcement and working with federal immigration agents. Notably, the order language allowed for patrol and jail deputies to notify the Immigration and Naturalization Service when a person is arrested for a felony, has an extensive criminal record, and is suspected of being in the country illegally.
It also authorized deputies to alert INS — a department that has not existed since 2003 when it was reorganized into multiple agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement — when they encountered people suspected of being undocumented immigrants, even when there was no crime being investigated.
“The old policy does not reflect the mission and values of our agency,” the sheriff’s bulletin issued Friday reads. “Administration will be releasing a directive to staff shortly as we work with County Counsel to update the policy.”
It was not clear why the language of General Order 23.01 remained undisturbed for years even after it was effectively invalidated by Santa Clara County sanctuary community policies that were first passed in 2010 and reaffirmed following the signing of Senate Bill 54 in 2017. That state law prohibited state authorities from honoring requests from ICE to hold people past their jail release dates without probable cause of a crime or a judicial warrant.
Santa Clara County has a stricter policy that also bars local jails from notifying ICE officials when someone believed to be an undocumented immigrant is released from custody. SB 54 does allow such notifications in the cases of people who have committed serious or violent felonies or felonies punishable by state prison.
The rescinded 2010 language also conflicted with a 2021 general order that “mandates that law enforcement services and the enforcement of laws be applied equally, fairly, and objectively, without any form of discrimination against any individual or group.”
In a statement to this news organization on Tuesday, the sheriff’s office said, “Our responsibility as a local law enforcement agency is to enforce the laws of the State of California and the County of Santa Clara, and ultimately to protect the community by investigating crimes. We are not immigration agents.”
Earlier this month, county officials reiterated their position on not participating in immigration enforcement, even as the Trump Administration is, for the second time, arguing that such practices shield violent criminals from deportation. The county contends that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility and that using local law enforcement for immigration erodes community trust and public safety if people are fearful of reporting crimes to authorities.
In 2019, Santa Clara County reaffirmed its sanctuary policy in the face of a political firestorm spurred by the killing of Bambi Larson, a 59-year-old South San Jose resident. Larson was stabbed to death in her home, allegedly by Carlos Arevalo Carranza, an undocumented immigrant and native of El Salvador who ICE claimed was the subject of six civil detainer requests to the county from federal agents.
Arevalo Carranza is scheduled to go to trial in April after his case resumed last fall, following a two-year pause while his mental competency was evaluated and restored to the satisfaction of the Superior Court.
Despite pushback from local police chiefs, Santa Clara County supervisors six years ago did not modify the ICE notification component of the county policy, citing in part the shaky reliability of confirming someone’s immigration status in real-time.
Supporters of the county policy, both then and now, argue that immigration agents have access to databases and other information to determine someone’s jail release and that requiring local law enforcement to do that work for them is a waste of taxpayer resources.
Santa Clara County is among the jurisdictions suing the Trump Administration over its threat to withhold federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions and prosecute local officials who refuse to assist federal immigration authorities and an executive order aimed at abolishing birthright citizenship.
Also among those litigants is state Attorney General Rob Bonta, who has called the targeting of sanctuary communities by the White House a “scare tactic” to pressure state law enforcement into carrying out the president’s mass deportation agenda. Bonta noted that federal courts during the previous Trump presidency ruled SB 54 does not conflict with federal immigration enforcement.