Despite the Trump administration’s demand for data on immigrant prisoners from the Los Angeles County Jail, Sheriff Robert Luna said his department cannot share personal information or comply with requests for transfer of inmates unless his department is presented with a judicial warrant signed by a judge.
The sheriff has repeated state and county sanctuary policies, banning him from working with federal immigration officials without a warrant, and said his department has previously transferred 20 people under certain legal circumstances.
“These warrants are effective and peaceful vehicles that transfer individuals who have committed violent or serious crimes,” Luna explained at a press conference Thursday.
The sheriff said in May, eight inmates from the LA County Jail System were transferred to enforcement custody for immigrants and clients, with 12 being handed over to federal officials in June. They were all convicted of serious crimes, including attempted murder and rape, Luna added.
The LA County Sheriff’s Office received a request from ICE for 995 civil detainees in 2024, but Luna said his agency was not compliant with any of them.
Luna’s remarks came just hours after the U.S. Department of Justice asked L.A. and other major California counties to provide detailed information on immigrant prisoners, particularly the type of crime they committed and when they were released from prison.
“Many of these illegal foreigners commit crimes in American soil, including rape, murder and other violent crimes,” the Trump administration said in a statement Thursday. “Today’s data request is designed to help federal immigration authorities prioritize the removal of illegal aliens who committed crimes after they illegally entered the United States.”
Attorney General Pam Bondy added that he is looking forward to working with California sheriffs and hopes the sheriff will “voluntarily” generate the requested information.
The Justice Department added that it is willing to use subpoena and other methods to obtain the data.
However, Sheriff Luna said she had never seen a federal request, but said that the system needs to be rebuilt to comply with the DOJ’s request.
“We don’t ask anyone if they’re legally here or illegally here, so it would be impossible to provide such a list unless we’ve redo the system in some way,” Luna explained.
But if an immigration officer has a warrant for the relocation of an inmate, the process will not be different to the release process, the Sheriff’s Department said. Inmates allowed to transfer either ice detention or other prisons will be given a pass to the release area and pick up law enforcement.
The Trump administration initially said immigration enforcement activities target undocumented people after serious convictions, but NBC News reports that of the 185,000 people arrested by federal agents between October 2024 and June 2025, they have been convicted or arrested of serious crimes, including murder and sexual assault. 42% had no criminal history in the US
In the Los Angeles area, nearly 2,800 undocumented immigrants were detained by federal agents last month as a violent ice attack began on June 6th.
The Department of Homeland Security said 2,792 undocumented migrants have been arrested in the LA area.
The first two weeks of the surgery ended with 1,618 arrests, with 1,174 being federally taken into custody in the first week of June and July.
The figure is unprecedentedly high compared to May, when more than 850 arrests were made, according to federal data obtained by the University of California, Berkeley.
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