The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office handed 83 people from local jails over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2025, up from 30 the year before. That near threefold jump has become a flashpoint between law enforcement leaders and immigrant rights advocates just as federal immigration operations ramp up across the region and local officials debate how closely to work with ICE.
How The Numbers Spiked
According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, ICE last year asked the Sheriff’s Department for release dates for 1,082 people booked into county jails. The agency declined 894 of those requests and agreed to share release dates in 188 cases. The paper also reports that 53 of the 2025 transfers followed federal judicial warrants, compared with 17 such warrants in 2024, and that five people turned over to ICE last year had U.S. birth listed in their jail records.
What The Sheriff Says Is At Stake
Sheriff Kelly Martinez has stood by the practice. She argued that it is safer for the community if ICE agents take people into custody at the jail rather than go looking for them on the streets, in comments to The San Diego Union-Tribune. Martinez has said the people transferred to ICE generally have multiple convictions or other qualifying convictions, and that each case is reviewed individually. Her office frames the approach as an attempt to balance public safety and legal requirements while operating seven county detention facilities.
Neighborhood Fear And Political Fallout
City and county officials, along with immigrant rights groups, say the spike has deepened anxiety in communities already rattled by federal raids. The San Diego City Council approved a resolution condemning what members labeled “excessive” ICE tactics, and County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre warned that communities “feel terror” when enforcement sweeps hit their neighborhoods, as reported by NBC 7 San Diego. Advocates argue that even transfers that occur quietly inside the jail can discourage victims and witnesses from reporting crimes or cooperating with local police.
A Local Piece Of A Bigger Crackdown
The county’s jump in transfers is part of a broader regional and national escalation in immigration enforcement after the federal government reset its priorities in 2025. Reporting by Axios found that arrests by ICE’s San Diego field office more than quadrupled in the first half of 2025, and that the share of people arrested without criminal charges climbed sharply after new daily arrest targets were put in place. Local prosecutors and federal partners say a renewed emphasis on people who have been deported before is one reason some individuals move from county jails into federal immigration custody.
The Legal Tightrope
California’s limits on local cooperation with immigration enforcement and the authority of federal criminal warrants create a tricky legal map for county jails to navigate. The Sheriff’s Department points to state law and its internal policies to explain when it will share information or transfer someone, while acknowledging that signed federal judicial warrants require a handoff to federal agents. The agency publishes its detention and immigration policies on its website for public review. For those watching the rules, the ongoing friction between California’s sanctuary-style laws and federal criminal warrants is the practical pivot point that explains why some people move from county custody into ICE custody, and others do not.
