Here’s why Homeland Security has space, data access at Stanislaus Sheriff’s office
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Stanislaus Sheriff and HSI signed an MOU allowing shared offices and databases.
- Both agencies deny immigration enforcement, but experts warn the MOU lacks limits.
- Values Act allows task forces but bans use of local resources for federal immigration work.
On the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders to increase enforcement on illegal immigration. One of these directives ordered that enforcing immigration laws be the “primary mission” of Homeland Security Investigations.
Last year, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office signed an agreement — known as a memorandum of understanding — with the Department of Homeland Security and its agencies, including HSI.
The MOU provides office space and access to Sheriff’s Office databases for two Homeland Security Investigations agents as part of a joint task force created to combat human, weapons and narcotic trafficking in Stanislaus County.
Both HSI and the Sheriff’s Office have adamantly said they do not enforce federal immigration laws in Stanislaus County. The task force did make 209 arrests in 2024, though none were for immigration enforcement purposes, according to a Sheriff’s Office’s report.
“They don’t do immigration enforcement associated with us, period,” Sheriff Jeff Dirkse told The Bee in July, referring to HSI.
State law has strict rules regarding these types of agreements. California’s Values Act, also known as SB54, permits local law enforcement to participate in joint task forces with these agencies — as long as the primary purpose is not immigration enforcement.
The law also prevents federal immigration enforcement agencies from using law enforcement resources, such as office space.
HSI, an agency under the umbrella of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, historically has not enforced immigration laws. That’s the responsibility of ICE’s other branch, Enforcement and Removal Operations. ICE, HSI and ERO all fall under the Department of Homeland Security.
Around the same time the Sheriff’s Office entered into its agreement with HSI, the federal agency was undergoing a “rebrand.” In 2024, the Washington Post reported that cities were refusing to enter into MOUs with HSI, or were kicked out of joint investigations, because the public largely saw the agency and ICE as the same thing.
HSI did everything short of becoming its own independent agency to distance itself from ICE and ERO — which included getting its own website and email addresses, along with new messaging, according to The Post. However, things have changed.
In February, USA Today reported that the Trump administration’s directives to reassign agents working on narcotics and other investigations to immigration enforcement caused early retirements and resignations. Officials within DHS, USA Today reported, were silenced into submission out of fear they would be retaliated against.
“It opens the door”
Some legal experts are concerned that language in the MOU, and directives coming from the White House, could open the door for HSI to conduct immigration enforcement in Stanislaus County. Both the Sheriff’s Office and HSI reject this as a possibility.
Gabriel Chin, a professor at the UC Davis School of Law, said the agreement doesn’t contain any language that precludes the HSI agents from conducting immigration enforcement using the Sheriff’s Office’s resources.
He called the MOU a “framework where they can work on whatever they want” and said it could open the door for federal agents to conduct immigration enforcement.
“It’s a question of how the agencies involved want to let it play out,” Chin said.
However, Chin did note that MOUs between local law enforcement and federal agencies are common and that he’s never seen one that has led to immigration enforcement.
The Redding Police Department also has an MOU with HSI from 2020 that allows select officers to temporarily act as federally authorized Customs Officers to help enforce customs-related laws, under HSI’s supervision and training. However, the Redding MOU specifies that those officers cannot enforce immigration violations.
The MOU with Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office does not mention immigration at all.
Jehan Laner, senior staff attorney of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, said language in the MOU is vague enough that HSI could conduct immigration enforcement without the Sheriff’s Office’s knowledge.
Laner told The Bee she’s seen in other cases that HSI is investigating federal crimes, like narcotic enforcement or human trafficking, where it does lead to outside immigration enforcement. This could be through collateral arrests — arresting bystanders who might not have immigration status in an investigation.
But this is, again, something the Sheriff’s Office and HSI deny is happening, or would happen.
“HSI doesn’t put us in the position to violate state law. HSI wants to be good partners; they know the laws we work under,” said Dirkse, who later added that “everything we’ve signed has been reviewed by attorneys.”
The Sheriff’s Office does have the ability to push back if HSI were to enforce immigration laws using facilities and resources provided by the MOU — it could just kick them out. This was also confirmed by HSI.
HSI San Francisco, whose jurisdiction is from Kern County to the Oregon border, stated the MOU with the Sheriff’s Office does not involve any type of immigration enforcement. If it ever did, “it would violate the Values Act” and would deem the agreement “null and void.”
Dirkse did say his “big concern” was that if deputies were at the scene of an investigation and ICE agents showed up to conduct immigration enforcement, his office would be accused of helping them. The Values Act states that local law enforcement can be called to the scene of federal immigration operations, but only to enforce state law.
“The public appearance would be that the Sheriff’s Office or (the Modesto Police Department) is now assisting ICE, and that is not the case,” said Dirkse. “We are not assisting them related with anything immigration enforcement. That is my concern coming out of all of this.”
This story was originally published October 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
