The Department of Justice has requested a list of all noncitizen inmates in San Francisco’s jails and has threatened to “pursue all available means” if the sheriff does not cooperate.
If the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department, which runs the jails, hands over the data, it will be in violation of the city’s sanctuary laws.
The request was also made to other California counties, including Los Angeles, in the form of a statement released Thursday morning.
“Removing criminal illegal aliens is this administration’s highest priority,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the press release. “I look forward to cooperating with California’s county sheriffs to accomplish our shared duty of keeping Californians and all Americans safe and secure.”
The SF Sheriff’s Department said it had not received an official request from the DOJ.
“In the absence of formal communication, we will review the information referenced in the DOJ’s press release and provide a response forthwith,” a sheriff’s spokesperson said.
San Francisco passed its sanctuary law in 1989 and has updated it multiple times since. One of its main intents is to allow immigrants to report crime and other issues to authorities without fear of being reported to immigration officials.
A spokesperson for Mayor Daniel Lurie said his administration defended the city’s long-standing sanctuary laws.
“Under San Francisco and California’s longstanding policies, local law enforcement does not participate in federal immigration enforcement. Mayor Lurie is committed to upholding those policies, and so are our city’s public safety leaders,” said Charles Lutvak.
The request for inmate information is the latest move by federal authorities to ramp up mass deportations, which have been on the rise in San Francisco and across the country and have faced legal pushback and protests. Just this week, President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, again threatened to double down on immigration enforcement in sanctuary cities.
Since Jan. 1, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have sent the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department 706 detainer requests, according to department data. The department’s policy is to only honor requests regarding individuals convicted of certain serious or violent felonies. It also considers whether the person poses a risk to public safety. Since April 1, the department has honored one detainer request, its spokesperson said.
Sheriff Paul Miyamoto released a statement Thursday, saying his “priority is public safety—not politics—and we will not foster fear in immigrant communities by acting as an arm of immigration enforcement.”
“The [SFSO] does not participate in civil immigration enforcement. The federal government already knows the identity and has the fingerprints of every inmate in San Francisco’s jails,” Miyamoto said. “If the federal government has a legal reason to arrest someone, they can do so by obtaining a criminal warrant or a court order. The Sheriff will respond to any request for information consistent with local, state, and federal law and the Sheriff has and will continue to honor judicial warrants.”
Bondi was in San Francisco on Thursday to visit Alcatraz, where she was expected to announce plans to reopen the federal prison on the island. A prison there closed in 1963 and has been a popular tourist destination since 1973, attracting more than 1 million visitors a year.