Stanislaus County sheriff turns over 84 jail inmates to ICE. Some want this to stop
More than 20 speakers, many of them immigration activists, urged the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department to stop cooperating with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
In addition, they called for county leaders to build trust with immigrants by passing an ordinance to prevent voluntary interaction between the sheriff’s department and the federal agency that’s regarded by critics as President Donald Trump’s tool for deporting undocumented people and appealing to anti-immigrant voters.
The county Board of Supervisors heard the comments Tuesday during an annual report and “forum” on sheriff’s department assistance for the federal agency.
Unlike large counties such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, and neighboring San Joaquin, which close the door on ICE to protect immigrant communities, Stanislaus cooperates with immigration authorities within the rules of California’s sanctuary bill. Former Sheriff Adam Christianson told of close relations with ICE when he sat next to Trump at a White House meeting on immigration and sanctuary laws in May 2018.
Sheriff Jeff Dirkse, who was elected a year ago, said immigration authorities initiate contact with the sheriff’s office. If a person booked in jail and fingerprinted has a prior conviction, the department can place a detainer on the individual. State legislation dictates the felony charges — assault, possession of weapons, serious drug offenses — that allow local agency cooperation with ICE.
According to Dirkse’s report, 46 undocumented people in custody in 2018 were turned over to the federal agency. About two-thirds of the 313 detainers requested by ICE were approved by the sheriff’s office. Dirkse said 38 people in custody were turned over to ICE in the first nine months of this year.
Last year, the largest number of jail inmates transferred to ICE (13) were charged with harming or injuring a child, the sheriff said. Other inmates taken by immigration authorities were charged with assault with a deadly weapon, domestic abuse, felony drunken driving, possession of methamphetamine, grand theft and weapons charges, according to Dirkse’s information.
During his presentation, Dirkse mentioned two recent multiple-victim shootings in California in noting that weapons possession is a charge that warrants cooperation with ICE. An immigration activist took issue with the sheriff’s comment, since the July shooting in Gilroy seemed to target immigrants.
Raquel Ortega of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California said she’s part of a coalition to shut ICE out of Stanislaus County. Ortega said cooperation with the federal agency makes immigrants distrustful of local authorities and makes them reluctant to report serious crimes.
Waterford Councilwoman Elizabeth Talbott was among speakers who want a community oversight committee to keep tabs on local interactions with ICE.
Ryan Segoviano, a school board member in Patterson, said children in a family with mixed status are traumatized if a parent is deported. “Even though the country is going in that direction, in Stanislaus County it does not have to be that way,” Segoviano said.
Speakers said they were grateful for Dirkse’s transparency in explaining the level of cooperation with immigration authorities. But an opportunity to comment to the Board of Supervisors was not a community forum, some said, and a meeting in the community should be held next time.
The four supervisors, with Kristin Olsen absent, did not comment on the sheriff’s department’s practices or any proposal for an ordinance.
After the meeting, Board Chairman Terry Withrow said it’s possible a forum in the community could be held when next year’s state-required report is due. “Anything we can do to get the facts out there and alleviate people’s fears,” Withrow said.
This story was originally published November 20, 2019 at 3:16 PM.
