ICE transfers in Orange County continue even as experts warn of economic effects

Despite vows from authorities in Los Angeles to not cooperate with ramped up ICE operations under the Trump Administration, cooperation in Orange County continues at a brisk clip, according to a report released this week.

In 2024, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department screened 633 people and transferred 226 of them to ICE custody. Of those, 186 were arrested, according to a new report to the Board of Supervisors. The trend is similar to 2023, when 221 people were arrested by ICE agents after a lull of just 17 people in 2022.

O.C. Sheriff Don Barnes reiterated at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday that cooperation with ICE “ is critical to the safety of our community.”

But Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento pushed back.

 ”What I'm lacking is data that shows that these transfers actually result in a reduction of crime. And if, if they do, let's figure it out. Let's understand what the data shows,” he said. “But I have yet to hear in the two years that I've been at this board that it shows that crime is being decreased.”

And now, with President Donald Trump pushing to expand immigration enforcement operations, advocates and policy experts fear the numbers could rise in Orange County, and with them, far-reaching consequences.

For example, Mai Do, research and policy manager at the nonprofit Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice, said the detentions have a detrimental effect on the county’s economy.

A new report by the institute found that the ICE transfers in 2024 resulted in about $2.3 million in lost labor income in Orange County.

Do added that the county also stands to lose out on more than $3.7 million in economic activity and over $240,000 in taxes.

According to the report, there are about 16,000 pending immigration cases in Orange County. If all of those people were detained, the collective loss of income would be around $161 million.

“ Orange County communities already lose out on so much in lost labor income and economic activity in state and local taxes when residents and community members are transferred to ICE custody and when immigration enforcement threatens and disrupts our communities,” Do said. “The president's mass deportation agenda threatens to amplify these already devastating effects, and so it's really important that Orange County leaders take a stand and not allow local agencies to be a cog in the president's mass deportation machine.”

Faby Jacome, executive director of the nonprofit Orange County Justice Fund, said they’re seeing an increase in targeted detention — outside homes, on the way to work, at ICE check-ins. This week, federal immigration authorities confirmed to the O.C. Register that an immigrant couple who had lived in Laguna Niguel for 35 years was deported after they were detained at a routine check-in.

But Jacome said that while targeted detentions have risen, they’re not “ to the extent that the current administration wants them to be,” noting that budget cuts by the Trump administration have also resulted in a lack of resources for undocumented migrants. A self-help desk at the Santa Ana courthouse, for example, was closed because of the budget cuts.

How we got here

In 2017, the California Values Act — commonly known as SB 54 — authorized law enforcement agencies in the state to notify immigration agents if a person has been convicted of a felony or a higher level misdemeanor like grand theft, larceny, assault with a deadly weapon or drug sales and possession. When they’re about to be released, those under an ICE detainer request are then handed over to federal agents.

Neither the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department nor the LAPD comply with the ICE detainer requests. But Orange County does, with Sheriff Don Barnes writing in a letter to supervisors earlier this month that undocumented immigrants pose a “significant risk.”

“Recognizing this threat, coupled with my responsibility to protect our constituents, I continue to exercise my authority under California state law to communicate with federal law enforcement officials to the fullest extent concerning the release of criminal offenders from my department’s custody facilities,” he wrote.

Working with ICE, Barnes added, has helped the Sheriff’s Department “prevent serious and repeat offenders from returning to the communities they have preyed upon and victimized.”

Barnes was writing to the supervisors to outline his department’s role as the board passed a resolution affirming the rights of U.S.-born children, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

Barnes added that the department does not enforce federal immigration law or assist ICE’s operations in Orange County beyond complying with detainer requests