California Cops Refused 8,901 ICE Requests to Hold Jailed Aliens. LAPD Said Yes Just 4 Times

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement asked the Los Angeles Police Department to hold a jailed alien for pickup, the answer came back yes exactly four times in more than six years. LAPD got 4,177 of those requests from January 2020 to June 2026, according to a new House Judiciary Committee report first obtained by the California Post. That is a yes rate under one-tenth of 1%.

San Francisco did worse. The city's Sheriff's Office turned down all 2,201 ICE requests it got from January 2020 to August 2026. In San Diego, the county Sheriff's Office declined 2,527 between January 2023 and June 2026, including 894 last year alone. Add them up and three California agencies said no 8,901 times.

The 22-page Republican report, led by Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio and immigration subcommittee chairman Tom McClintock of California, puts it bluntly: "Because of California's sanctuary policies, local law enforcement officers have been forced to release repeat and dangerous criminals onto California streets."

What a detainer actually asks

A detainer is not a raid or an arrest warrant. It is a written request ICE sends to a jail that already has someone in custody on local charges. In the words of the committee's letters, it asks the jail to "notify [ICE] as early as possible" before release and to "hold the alien for up to 48 hours beyond the time [the agency] would ordinarily release them" so federal officers can take custody.

Think of it like a store calling the police about a shoplifter it is already holding in the back office. All the police ask is a heads-up before the door opens. California's big jails mostly let the door open anyway.

The law behind the no

California built this wall in two steps. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Trust Act in 2013, then the California Values Act, known as SB 54, in 2017. Under state law today, local jails may not keep anyone past release on an ICE hold, and may tell ICE a release date only for people whose records include crimes on a specific list of serious and violent offenses. San Francisco layered its own rules on top, barring city "resources to assist in the enforcement of Federal immigration law."

Sheriff Paul Miyamoto has not hidden from it. The committee's June 2 letter to him quotes his own boast from 2025 that "out of thousands of requests for detention" from ICE, his office had "only honored one." San Diego County supervisors tightened their sanctuary rules again in December 2024 over objections from Sheriff Kelly Martinez, who said her department would follow state law.

The report also cites ICE figures showing California authorities released 4,561 people sought by federal agents between Jan. 20, 2025, and early February 2026. The committee says those released had criminal histories that included homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping, burglary, weapons offenses and child abuse.

Deported 10 times, then freed again

The report's lead example shows what a refused detainer can cost. Herbert Nixon Flores, a Salvadoran national, had been ordered removed and deported 10 times since 1990, according to ICE. LAPD arrested him on Sept. 7, 2020, on a domestic violence charge. ICE lodged a detainer the next day. LAPD did not honor it, and Flores walked out.

On Jan. 6, 2021, police say Flores shot his ex-girlfriend, 35-year-old Karen Ruiz, in Pacoima in front of their 3-year-old daughter. He killed himself days later as police closed in on him in Irving, Texas. At the time, then-LAPD Chief Michel Moore defended his department and said ICE should explain why the man was still in the country. ICE's answer was simple: it had asked LAPD to hand him over, and LAPD said no.

Newsom's side, and the hole in it

Gov. Gavin Newsom's office did not respond to the Post. In February, it called claims that California "blocks" cooperation with ICE "simply false," saying state prisons have transferred more than 12,000 people into ICE custody since 2019 and that ICE fails to pick up about one in eight state prisoners it has detainers on.

Here is what that defense leaves out. State prisons hold people already convicted and sentenced. The report is about city and county jails, where people land right after arrest, like Flores did. That is where ICE's requests stack up, and that is where LAPD, San Francisco and San Diego said no nearly 9,000 times.

"The blanket disregard of all immigration detainers is one of the largest public safety threats to our country," Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, told the Post. "They would rather release these criminals back into the community than allow ICE to do its congressionally mandated job."

What happens next

California is the newest target in a series. The committee has put out the same kind of report on Fairfax County, Philadelphia, Colorado, Illinois and Arlington County, and on New York City just three days ago. Republicans are pushing the Shut Down Sanctuary Policies Act, which would bar state and local rules that block cooperation with immigration officers. The Judiciary Committee advanced it in March.

With the midterms five days away and ICE funding on the line in Congress, these numbers are about to become a campaign argument. Four out of 4,177 is a hard number to explain away.