MILPITAS — The revelation that people have been detained in recent weeks by waiting ICE agents upon their release from Santa Clara County jails has raised alarm over the strength of sanctuary policies that have aimed to keep local law enforcement out of immigration enforcement.
County officials and immigrant-rights groups have confirmed that U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents have been using publicly available online portals and leaning on jail staff to pinpoint release times of people they are seeking to deport.
After an inquiry from this news organization, the sheriff’s office, which operates the county jails, affirmed that last week, three plainclothes ICE agents asked for the release time of a man scheduled for release that day from the Elmwood medium-security men’s jail in Milpitas.
The 35-year-old gardener’s wife, Maribel Mesa, told this news organization that she had arrived early that day to ensure she would be there to take him home. Instead, she said, her husband was whisked away from the jail lobby to a waiting white vehicle, and eventually taken to federal custody in Bakersfield.
“I saw these white trucks, and I never would have imagined they would have been ICE,” Mesa said in Spanish. “They detained him right then and there. I was crying. It’s so hard and I saw it all in front of me … I don’t know why they did it.”
Now she says she might have to resort to selling his tools to help pay for an attorney.
In a series of posted statements, the sheriff’s office asserted that the detainments did not involve any violations of the county’s sanctuary policy.
“The sheriff’s office did not assist in the arrest, nor did we provide advance notification to ICE,” the statement reads. “We understand these events can cause distress. However, we are legally obligated to provide equal access to publicly available information — whether the request comes from a family, friends, or any law enforcement agency. We do not profile or selectively withhold this information.”
The office added: “ICE agents, like any member of the public, are legally allowed to be in public areas of our facilities without notice. The sheriff’s office cannot prevent or interfere with the actions of another law enforcement agency operating within the law.”
The sheriff’s office said four people in total have recently been detained in similar circumstances at county jails, and noted that federal agents have taken people into custody outside the Hall of Justice in San Jose in recent months.
Raj Jayadev, co-founder of the South Bay civil-rights group Silicon Valley De-Bug, said the county’s promise to protect immigrants from being vilified and mistreated is now being tested.
“It’s incredibly alarming. Our community in Santa Clara County worked really hard to protect our immigrant communities in creating a policy to prevent people from being put into ICE detention through the county jails,” he said. “We had thought we had created a fortress for the most vulnerable. Now, to have ICE agents walk in, ask for the person they want, and for them to be hand-delivered to them, isn’t the vision of the policies we worked so hard to create and defend for years.”
“What this reveals is that the fight to protect our community against ICE in Santa Clara County is not a static one but dynamic,” he added. “”If there’s a time when you need a county to hold a strong feet-on-the-ground policy, it’s now.”
Federal immigration officials complained for years that they needed local jails to honor civil detainer requests to hold potential deportation targets after their release so that their agents could pick them up.
When jurisdictions like Santa Clara County denied the requests, they insisted federal authorities had ample access to information to perform that work without involving local law enforcement, who prioritized cooperation from immigrant communities to promote public safety.
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“That has ebbed and flowed across a number of administrations both Democratic and Republican,” he said. “ICE carries out its work in public locations using public data and public information and that is part of what ICE does. We support, as a county government, everyone as best as we can. We are clear about the work that we do with our local resources.”
Members of the Forum for Immigrant Rights & Empowerment (FIRE) Coalition met with Sheriff Robert Jonsen Monday about the detainments, and said the explanation they received reflects a major shortcoming in county policy that to this point had largely kept immigration authorities at bay.
Jesus, a veteran community organizer with Pangea Legal Services who declined to give his last name, argued that the detainments, particularly how and where they’re being carried out, casts doubt on the recent pledges from the county.
“The arrests are now happening inside, not outside,” he said. “Things are changing with the way this (Trump) administration is doing things, the way ICE is doing things. We need to adjust the policy to respond to that.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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