Southern California’s top law enforcement leaders are trying to assure immigrant communities that their officers will not be involved in any mass deportations under the incoming Trump administration.

“We don’t do that,” Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said during his confirmation hearing earlier this month. “We would alienate a large part of the population.”

He responded to the concerns expressed by City Council members.

Across the region, leaders of the largest law enforcement agencies said their own policies and a state law passed during the first Trump administration largely prohibit cooperation between ICE and local police and sheriff’s departments. The exception is in prisons, where people convicted of the most serious crimes can be turned over to ICE.

In addition to McDonnell, LAist reached out to sheriffs in LA, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department issued a statement saying that in 2020, the Board of Supervisors “permanently prohibited cooperation with federal immigration officials.”

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said his deputies do not get involved in immigration checks. “I have never participated in community-level immigration activities,” he said.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said federal immigration enforcement is “not our job.”

“We have too many other things to do,” he added.

The San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department issued a statement citing state law that prohibits cooperation.

Immigrant rights activists said they plan to closely monitor local law enforcement to make sure they follow through on their promises — and state law.

“We plan to keep a close eye on recalcitrant sheriffs and hold them accountable,” said Chris Newman of the National Day Laborers Organizing Network. He noted that Trump failed to carry out large numbers of deportations during his first term because of so-called sanctuary laws.

“Sanctuary policies have protected the Trump administration from using the criminal justice system as a force multiplier,” he said.

Trump’s “mass deportation” promise.

Trump has vowed to carry out a “mass deportation” of the country’s 11 million unauthorized immigrants, in part by using local police as force multipliers. He said he thinks the police are rounding up immigrants from the streets, workplaces and prisons.

For police agencies that don’t cooperate, Trump has threatened to cut off federal grants.

Los Angeles County is home to about 951,000 unauthorized immigrants, according to the Migration Policy Institute. The total population of the county is 10 million.

Rounding up even a fraction of that many people would be a massive effort beyond the capacity of ICE’s current resources, said Claude Arnold, former chief of investigations for Homeland Security in Los Angeles.

“As far as state and local law enforcement cooperating, that’s huge,” Arnold said. “It makes all the difference in the world.”

Some states, including Texas, require local police to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. In California, it’s the other way around. The state is limiting cooperation under a 2018 sanctuary law.

The California Values ​​Act, written by then-Sen. Kevin de León, limits a number of activities by law enforcement.

“California law enforcement agencies are prohibited from using department resources — whether funding or personnel — for immigration law enforcement activities such as investigating, questioning, detaining, detecting, or arresting persons for immigration purposes,” says the law.

But the act allows for some cooperation. It allows prison authorities to hand over the person to ICE convicted of certain types of crimes – those classified as serious or violent crimes, including murder, rape, burglary, assault and forgery. The act prohibits officials from handing over a person to ICE convicted of most felonies.

That angers Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, who said he believes unauthorized immigrants convicted of any crime should be turned over to ICE.

He called the sanctuary law “onerous.”

“We’re forced to let them go,” he said of people convicted of low-level crimes, adding that he hoped the Trump administration would “figure out how we can fix the horrible state policies and state laws.”

Will sanctuary laws be challenged?

The first Trump administration unsuccessfully challenged California’s sanctuary law, also known as SB54.

Arnold, the former immigration official, predicted the Trump administration would likely go to court again in an attempt to weaken the law.

“There will certainly be litigation,” he said, adding that while states can’t be forced to cooperate, they also can’t prevent immigration laws from being enforced.

Arnold also said the administration would likely focus on prisons as part of any mass deportation program.

“They’re going to focus on criminals first,” Arnold said. “Those people are birds in the hand.”

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which operates the nation’s largest jail system, says it has not turned over any unauthorized immigrants to ICE.

“The department does not honor ICE requests/detainers or transfer individuals into ICE custody unless there is a federal court warrant signed by a judge,” the department said in a statement. “Immigration officials are not in our facilities and are prohibited from using county property, databases and personnel unless there is a federal warrant.”

Additionally, California prohibits local jails from renting space to ICE for inmates.

This could become a burden on ICE should mass deportations occur. The federal government would need detention space.

California has also restricted cooperation with ICE by employers. The state passed a law that says before ICE visits, employers must give employees 24 hours notice and cannot allow ICE agents to enter non-public areas of the workplace without a warrant.

“California can’t be an obstacle to immigration enforcement, but it can make it difficult,” said Jean Reisz, co-director of USC’s Immigration Law Clinic.