By Royal Calkins
Despite its proclaimed status as a “Welcoming County” for immigration purposes, Monterey County received $635,000 last year from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for routinely providing federal officials with details about convicted, undocumented inmates in the county jail.
Members of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors were surprised this week when Voices made them aware of the practice, which has received little attention even though most California counties have been receiving money from the program for years. On top of the county payments, the California prison system received more than $45 million for providing inmate lists to Immigration and Customs Enforcement last year, according to federal documents. The source of the money is the federal State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which has existed since early this century.
Out of the state’s 58 counties, 35 take part. Under the law, the money is only supposed to be used for corrections — salaries for the most part — but oversight is said to be spotty.
The subject arises now partly because U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday wrote to San Francisco County and other non-participating counties urging them to get with the program. San Francisco and Los Angeles counties had stopped providing inmate lists to the feds in recent years as they and other localities declared themselves sanctuary or welcoming counties, which indicates a low level of cooperation with ICE. Bondi’s letter threatened to take all necessary steps to compel cooperation. It did not mention the money involved.
Over the years, California has received the bulk of the payments. Several counties in Washington state also have opted out. One Wisconsin sheriff, in Dane County, recently stopped cooperating. Voices wasn’t able to quickly determine when Los Angeles County stopped cooperating. San Francisco County pulled out in 2016.
On the Central Coast, Santa Cruz County received $78,000 from the program last year, San Luis Obispo County got $110,000 and San Benito County did not participate.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office said state law allows county jails to transfer individuals into ICE custody only if federal agents have a criminal arrest warrant for a violation of a federal law, “but it does not allow for the wholesale notification to DOJ of individuals housed in county jails.”
In addition to naming the inmates, counties receiving the federal payments are required to provide addresses, physical descriptions, birthplaces and immigration status, though officials in some California counties have claimed that less information is required. Under previous administrations, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office went as far as to provide federal immigration agents with office space to help corral immigrant inmates, but that ended under current Sheriff Tina Nieto’s watch.
Nieto was not available to be interviewed Thursday but said in a series of email exchanges that the program is not as simple as some have described it. She said it is not a matter of local officials continuously listing undocumented inmates as they arrive at the jail but more a case of periodic compilation of names followed by an application process.
A high-ranking official in a nearby county said Thursday that officials in his orbit claim that the money has nothing to do with helping federal authorities capture undocumented people, “but look at the name of the program. It’s the Criminal Alien Assistance program and they’re sure as heck not assisting criminal aliens.” The official asked not to be named because he didn’t want to offend officials in other counties.
Many of the 900-plus inmates held in the Monterey County Jail are awaiting trial and have not been convicted. Only convicted inmates count for purposes of the program.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta questioned the legality of Bondi’s request and said his office would review it. His office said state law, the California Values Act, allows county jails to transfer individuals into ICE custody only if the federal agents have a criminal arrest warrant for a violation of a federal law, “but it does not allow for the wholesale notification to DOJ (Department of Justice) of individuals housed in county jails.”
The federal payments for inmate information are made on a nationwide basis, but there were no indications Thursday that Bondi was targeting jails in other states. Her action does come, of course, at a time of heightening tensions over the Trump administration plan to change the country’s complexion by removing the undocumented.
Immigration agents have stepped up enforcement efforts in California in recent weeks, leading to the dispatch of Marines and National Guard troops to Los Angeles and a rash of large raids along the Southern California coast. One worker died from injuries he sustained during a recent raid in Ventura County.
While the president has waffled on whether to target California’s gigantic farm industry, his newly adopted “Big Beautiful Bill” has unlocked considerable new federal funding that is expected to help send greater numbers of masked agents into fields and packing houses.
Mental health agencies throughout the state report a steep rise in calls for critical care in immigrant communities wracked with fear. There have been so many reports of unfair and even cruel treatment of immigrant families that the national sentiment has taken a decided turn against the Republican Party’s deportation agenda.
Many California cities and counties have declared themselves sanctuaries or welcoming places for immigration purposes, though the terms are loosely defined. They don’t mean that federal officials will be stopped from arresting people suspected of being in the country illegally, but they generally do mean that local police officers or sheriff’s deputies will not assist with immigration arrests or provide leads to federal authorities. Law enforcement officials in many jurisdictions say that official or unofficial cooperation with immigration officials can make people in immigrant communities afraid to assist authorities in criminal investigations — or even to report crimes.
Politicians throughout the state have regularly proclaimed their unwillingness to assist the Trump Administration’s purge and have sponsored rallies and other events to publicize their positions. Monterey County officials took part in this recent demonstration of opposition to Trump’s immigration agenda.
Representatives — including Sheriff Nieto — from Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties in government, hospitality and the ag sector took part in a press conference to denounce the raids in Los Angeles, express support for the immigrant community, and to urge the federal government to create a path to legalization.
However, considering the flow of federal money to California jails, it appears that the positions taken by some officials in various jurisdictions have been more symbolic than meaningful.
A federal chart shows that 35 of the 58 California counties received money for cooperating last year. Most of those absent were small rural counties with relatively small immigrant populations. The largest recipients were Orange County at more than $2 million and Alameda County at $1.2 million. Because of its large immigrant population, Monterey County received more money than five larger counties.
Officials in Alameda County are reported to have recently been considering ending their cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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