The Sheriff of the County of Orange explodes the law on the sanctuary of the State, but says that the deputies will not apply immigration

The Sheriff of the County of Orange, Don Barnes, has gone bankrupt a law of the State sanctuary which prohibits local police from contacting immigration officials when an undocumented immigrant is detained in the county prison, but he declared that he would not direct his deputies to enforce the laws on immigration.

“We have no desire to apply immigration law – we have never done it, and we will never do it,” said Barnes at a meeting of the Supervisors Council on Tuesday. “But we must have the capacity to communicate and share the threats and the suppression of criminal offenders who attack our community, often in the communities of immigrants in which they reside.”

During the same meeting, Barnes called for the repeal of Bill 54 of the Senate, a law introduced by the President of the State Senate of the time, Kevin de León, and approved by legislators in 2017. The law was partly written in response to policies of the first Trump administration to increase the deportations and detentions of immigrants.

Now Trump has called for massive deportations during his second term, including targeting certain visa and immigrant holders without criminal history, which caused a new examination of the law of the State while local law organizations are trying to determine how, if necessary, will cooperate with the federal immigration authorities.

Trump’s last pressure for deportations and California’s challenge puts local law enforcement in a precarious place.

Under SB 54, local officials of the law enforcement are prohibited from spending money or resources for the federal immigration application. However, the law authorizes local officials of the application of laws to project prisoners, when asked by US immigration and customs officials, if they have been found guilty of certain violent and crimes, such as attacks, batteries, child abuse or sexual abuse among other crimes.

If the detainees have not been found guilty of these crimes, the law prohibits local police from notifying the ice when it is released from the guard.

In the County of Orange last year, those responsible for the County prison were invited to the ICE officials to project 633 detainees detained in the county prison. Among these detainees, 226 were referred to the ice as being illegally in the country. The Federal Agency arrested 186 of these detainees, according to disclosure mandated by the state published on Tuesday.

Certain defenders of immigration rights have spoken out at Tuesday’s meeting and criticized supervisors and sheriffs for continuing to carry out immigrant projections in prisons, and urged county officials to stop cooperating with federal immigration officials.

Although local deputies and police are prohibited from regularly requesting immigration status when they express themselves to a suspect or a witness, the defenders said that the cooperation of the local police with immigration officials could undermine the confidence of the public and dissuade people from contacting the police.

“This undermines public security and undermines our local economy,” said Carlos Perea, executive director of the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice.

Barnes stressed that the deputies of the third county of the State focused on the application of state and local laws, and not of immigration laws. But he also clearly indicated that he supported greater cooperation with immigration officials with regard to undocumented immigrants in the county prison, although his agency would continue to follow the law of the state.

Addressing supervisors on Tuesday, Barnes criticized the so-called law of the sanctuary and offered examples of immigrants who have been arrested in the County of Orange, released and recommented for other crimes, including kidnapping, narcotics and children’s mistreatment.

“Those who are not picked up by ice continue to victimize our community and to consume laws to apply the law,” he said.

Of the 633 detainees that Ice asked to be projected in the County of Orange, 407 of them did not meet the criteria of the State to notify the federal officials, said Barnes.

However, the notification of federal officials of those who meet the criteria is left to the discretion of the police.

This option has also already caused confrontations between local officials who do not agree on the quantity, if necessary, the police should be involved in the application of immigration.

In February, the Sheriff of the County of Riverside, Chad Bianco, said that his deputies would not be involved in the application of immigration.

The declaration, shared in a video published on social networks, was partially shared to combat rumors that riverside deputies were involved in immigration raids, said Bianco.

Bianco, a free-speaking supporter of President Trump, criticized the law of the California sanctuary.

But Bianco told Fox 11 he “would somehow work around SB 54 with ice”.

San Diego County Supervisors adopted a policy in December which would prevent prison staff from working with federal officials, regardless of the previous convictions of the detainee.

But the sheriff of the county of San Diego, Kelly Martinez, who oversees the prisons, postponed the supervisors’ council and said that it will not comply with the county policy.

Martinez argued that as elected and supervisor of prisons, she could only define policies for the Sheriff department, and promised to continue to inform the ice when an unauthorized person to be in the country was released from the county prison.

In Orange County, supervisors seemed mainly in favor of sheriff policies.

The Don Wagner supervisor stressed that the 226 detainees who were referred to the ice were a small part of the more than 48,000 reservations in last year’s prison.

“The sheriff must be welcomed,” said Wagner, “not convicted for the very judicious use of his power he described today.”