Advocates urge San Diego Sheriff to reconsider stance against county sanctuary policy

As the Trump administration’s harsh immigration enforcement tactics ramp up, advocates are urging San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez to follow a sanctuary policy the County Board of Supervisors approved late last year.

California’s sanctuary laws allow local jailers to voluntarily transfer inmates to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody if they’ve been convicted of certain felonies, or if ICE provides a federal warrant.

The laws also allow local jurisdictions to impose further limits. For example, Los Angeles County only transfers inmates to ICE custody when ICE produces a warrant.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors passed a similar policy last December. But at the time, Martinez said she wouldn’t honor the new policy, pointing out that the supervisors do not set policy for the Sheriff’s Office.

Since then, stories of immigration raids, foreign students having their visas revoked, U.S. citizens being detained by ICE and immigrants without legal status being sent to El Salvador by accident have only intensified the fear in immigrant communities.

“When we passed the policy in December of last year, we weren’t at the point where we are now,” Supervisor Monica Montgomery-Steppe said Tuesday during an annual forum on immigration enforcement.

Immigrant rights advocates from multiple organizations at the forum urged Martinez to follow the county policy, known as L-2.

“The moment demands that the San Diego Sheriff comply with County Board policy L-2,” said Patricia Mondragon, regional policy Manager for Alliance San Diego.

Advocates argued that any perception that local law enforcement agencies are cooperating with ICE creates distrust among immigrant communities.

“I think it’s very unhealthy that community members should live in fear of an encounter with law enforcement, that they might be deported,” said Carl Browning, a public speaker at the forum.

In response to these concerns, Sheriff Martinez recognized anxiety surrounding immigration enforcement.

“It’s not lost on me, the concerns of our community,” she said. “It’s not lost on me, the fear in the community and I want everyone to understand that this is my community as well.”

She said all 30 people transferred from Sheriff’s custody to ICE last year either had a criminal conviction or a federal warrant. And she noted that several of the people with criminal convictions had been arrested multiple times – although it is not clear how many of those rearrests resulted in charges or convictions.

Martinez argued that facilitating ICE transfers of people with criminal convictions in local jails protects unauthorized immigrants in the community from getting caught in collateral arrests when ICE agents venture out into residential neighborhoods.

“It protects our communities when ICE is picking someone up in a jail that they’re going to look for anyway,” she said. “It protects our community members from the collateral damage of having mothers, daughters, sons, children picked up as well.”

The forum ended abruptly when Supervisor Joel Anderson announced that he had to leave. That left the board without a quorum because Supervisor Jim Desmond was not in attendance and the District 1 seat is vacant.

The Sheriff did not get an opportunity to directly answer questions about her decision to ignore the L-2 policy before the forum ended.

Immigrant rights advocates critical of Martinez’s stance on the county policy have pointed to language in the sanctuary state laws to argue that she is obligated to follow local policy.

According to an information bulletin published by the California Department of Justice, ICE transfers are only permitted if “the transfer would not otherwise violate any federal, state, or local law, or local policy.”

After this story was originally published, the Sheriff's Office sent a statement reiterating Martinez's autonomy when it comes to setting policy in the county jails.

"The Sheriff, as an independently elected official, sets the local policy for the Sheriff's Office," the statement said.

In previous visits to San Diego, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office monitors sanctuary law compliance throughout the state. But he has refused to answer questions about specific cases.

“We are closely monitoring law enforcement compliance with SB 54,” his office said in a statement. “That being said, to protect their integrity, we are unable to comment on, even to confirm or deny, potential or ongoing investigations.”