Federal prosecutors say a program built to route around California's sanctuary state law has now issued 769 arrest warrants and pulled 362 non-citizen defendants directly out of Southern California county jails and into federal custody. The operation, known as Operation Guardian Angel, targets inmates who are unlawfully present in the United States before they can be released back onto the street under state law, according to federal officials.
Federal officials say the program is meant to neutralize California's sanctuary state law, formally known as SB 54 or the California Values Act, which was signed in 2017 and restricts how local police and jails can cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, as reported by MyNewsLA.com. Rather than relying on civil ICE detainers, which SB 54 bars local jails from honoring, prosecutors instead file federal criminal complaints under 8 U.S.C. Section 1326 for illegal reentry after deportation. That maneuver produces judicial arrest warrants signed by federal judges, and because those warrants carry constitutional supremacy over state statutes, local jails are legally forced to hand over the named defendants before their state release, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Operation Guardian Angel operates across the Los Angeles area, the Inland Empire and elsewhere in Southern California, per the same account. It functions as the regional arm of a broader national initiative called Operation Take Back America, which Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche authorized in March 2025 to target cartels, transnational criminal organizations and immigration offenses in sanctuary jurisdictions, according to KEYT.
How the Warrants Actually Move Through the System
The Central District of California spans seven counties — Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura — where federal prosecutors estimate roughly 1.5 million undocumented immigrants reside, the Justice Department notes. To find targets inside that population, prosecutors built a downtown Los Angeles task force pulling agents from ICE, Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, DEA, ATF and U.S. Border Patrol to run daily fingerprint sweeps of newly booked county jail inmates, checking for prior deportation records, according to Fox News.
Growth in the program's numbers has been steady. Transfers climbed from 13 arrests in May 2025, when the operation launched, to 78 arrests — 73 inside jails and five at courthouses — by September 2025, before reaching the current tally of 769 warrants and 362 jail transfers by August 2026, per the Justice Department. In September 2025, agents also expanded the tactic beyond jail facilities, executing federal arrest warrants to detain five undocumented individuals at or near Southern California county courthouses, KEYT reported.
Of the 362 people transferred, the federal government has charged 347 of them with illegally re-entering the United States after removal or with another federal offense, MyNewsLA.com reports. Additional federal charges tied to the operation include unlawful possession of a firearm by an alien, unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, and using a firearm in drug trafficking or a crime of violence.
The Cases Prosecutors Are Pointing To
Federal prosecutors have highlighted specific cases to illustrate how the program works. Jaime Rodríguez Ladesma, a 70-year-old non-citizen from Mexico living in Long Beach, was convicted in October 2023 in Los Angeles Superior Court of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 and had already been removed to Mexico once in December 2023; he was later convicted of being found in the United States following removal and was removed again in March 2026, per MyNewsLA.com.
Ricardo López Jaramillo, also known as Sharky, is a 50-year-old five-times-deported non-citizen from Mexico with a gang affiliation and multiple felony robbery convictions in Los Angeles County. He was convicted of three counts of illegal entry in San Diego federal court in 2007 and sentenced to three years in federal prison, then sentenced again in November 2025 to 10 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to being in the United States following removal, before being removed to Mexico in June 2026, according to the same MyNewsLA.com account.
Andrés Velásquez Ocampo, a 37-year-old non-citizen from Mexico living in Santa Ana, was deported in January 2019 and later arrested on drug charges in South Gate in May 2025. He has convictions for carjacking and hit-and-run with property damage, pleaded guilty in November 2025 to being found in the United States following removal, was sentenced to three months in federal prison, and was removed to Mexico in December 2025.
Outside Los Angeles County, Alejandro Lima Ramírez of Santa Maria was transferred from Santa Barbara County Jail under the operation and sentenced in October 2025 to 30 months in federal prison for illegal reentry after four prior deportations, KEYT reported.
Why Federal Officials Launched the Program
Bill Essayli, who launched the program and holds the title of First Assistant U.S. Attorney, has said Operation Guardian Angel challenges California sanctuary policies and transfers criminal non-citizens into federal custody for justice and deportation, according to MyNewsLA.com. Federal prosecutors have publicly cited violent crime from early 2025 to justify the operation's launch, including a February 2025 fatal shooting of an Inglewood man during a catalytic converter theft attempt; the suspect had previously been deported and had 11 prior arrests but had been released due to state detainer restrictions, per the Justice Department.
Municipal police agencies have had to adjust their own training to comply with the federal warrants without running afoul of state law. The Oxnard Police Department, in Training Bulletin 25-003 issued in June 2025, specifically advised officers and jail staff that federal criminal arrest warrants issued under 8 U.S.C. 1326 must be executed and honored, distinguishing them from the civil detainers that SB 54 prohibits, according to City of San Luis Obispo records.
A Legal Cloud Over Essayli's Authority
The program's operational statistics come alongside an unresolved legal challenge to the authority of the man who created it. U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright ruled in October 2025 that Essayli was not lawfully serving as Acting U.S. Attorney under federal vacancy laws, and defense attorneys moved in June 2026 to seek dismissal of indictments brought during his tenure — a fight Hoodline detailed earlier this summer. It remains an open question whether that ruling will unwind any of the prosecutions tied to Operation Guardian Angel's 769 warrants, and reporting on the program's totals should be read alongside that judicial challenge rather than in isolation.
