Earlier this year, the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice released an analysis of data from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) reflecting transfers of community members to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. Last year, OCSD transferred 221 individuals to ICE. Most were Mexican, Vietnamese, and Central American community members.
There are numerous practical reasons and moral imperatives for OCSD to stop voluntarily transferring community members over into the hands of federal immigration enforcement. First, our local governments should not use our local resources to assist or facilitate federal immigration officers in their efforts to separate families and fracture our communities. In other counties with large immigrant and refugee populations like Los Angeles County, sheriff’s departments no longer transfer community members to ICE. OCSD remains in the small minority of California sheriff’s departments that transfers community members to ICE despite no consistent empirical evidence that working with ICE decreases crime. OCSD is wasting taxpayer money by continuing a harmful practice that researchers have repeatedly failed to prove is systematically effective at promoting public safety.
Second, Orange County is home to some of the state’s largest and most vibrant immigrant and refugee populations. OCSD’s insistence on expending resources to keep transferring community members to ICE demonstrates not only how out of touch the Sheriff’s Department is with our communities, but also how much disregard OCSD has for our communities’ actual safety. There are numerous known risks associated with local law enforcement collaboration with ICE. By transferring community members to ICE, OCSD continues to risk eroding trust in local government and law enforcement; inflicting psychological harm on local families; generating fear among immigrants and refugees in need of health care; and decreasing crime reporting rates among immigrant and refugee communities. OCSD is trading the health and safety of our communities for no clear benefits other than an excuse to criminalize, demonize, and terrorize immigrant and refugee communities.
Third, even when the Sheriff’s Department transfers individuals to ICE, they have historically violated the rights of Orange County residents, including Mr. Sixtos-Gomez, Mr. Gutierrez, and Mr. Roman. Though OCSD’s transfer of Mr. Sixtos-Gomez to ICE violated the TRUTH Act, he entered removal proceedings and was deported a week before Christmas in 2018. Mr. Roman is now facing a similar situation. “I would rather call my neighbor instead of the police,” shared Mr. Roman, a member of the OC Rapid Response Network, at this year’s TRUTH Act Forum press conference – a sentiment he now holds after getting transferred to ICE at the height of the pandemic. In just examining the above cases, we know that the OC Sheriff can and will violate the rights of our community members to make ICE transfers possible, including violating the California Values Act, the 4th Amendment, and withholding ICE Detainer Form I-274A from arrested individuals.
Fourth, the harmful effects of ICE transfers are widespread and negatively impact a diverse array of communities across the county. For example, Vietnamese community members make up about 16 percent of the county’s immigrant and refugee population, yet they routinely comprise a much larger share of people transferred to ICE by OCSD. There are also few accessible resources and culturally-competent service providers available to assist Vietnamese community members who are transferred to ICE, especially those who only speak Vietnamese. The sheriff’s department must stop transferring community members to ICE and the harm those transfers inflict on families across Orange County, including in Little Saigon, the heart of the Vietnamese diaspora.
During the Trump administration’s attacks against the California Values Act, OCSD repeatedly sided with anti-immigrant hate groups from outside of Orange County and their orchestrated anti-sanctuary “hate circus.” By continuing to transfer community members to ICE, OCSD continues to align itself with anti-immigrant hate groups and politicians who spew xenophobic vitriol – further compromising our communities’ trust and safety instead of bolstering them.
We must treat all immigrants and refugees with love. Most Christians know Jesus’ instruction to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Leviticus 19:33-34 states: “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born.”
Every day, politicians across the country increasingly scapegoat our immigrant and refugee communities. It is more critical than ever that local institutions prioritize the safety, dignity, and due process of all Orange County residents. Zechariah 7:10 instructs: “Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.” If Orange County is to live up to its promise as a place of opportunity and safety for immigrants and refugees, then the county government must reflect that commitment, including in local law enforcement practices. OCSD must end its heinous practice of voluntarily handing community members over to ICE custody. The sheriff’s department must end all ICE transfers.
Reverend Walter Contreras is a faith-rooted organizer in Orange County with Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice and member of the Presbytery of San Gabriel Valley of the The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He resides in the city of Rancho Cucamonga.
Carlos Perea is a Santa Ana resident, immigrant from Mexico, and the Executive Director for the Harbor Institute for Immigrant & Economic Justice.
Tracy La is a Santa Ana resident, daughter of Vietnamese refugees, and executive director of VietRISE, a Garden Grove-based community organization that advances social justice for working class Vietnamese and immigrant communities in Orange County.
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