An Orange County sheriff's deputy and a Sheriff's Special Officer have been placed on leave while investigators determine whether the pair's actions violated department policy or state law during an ICE arrest outside Men's Central Jail in Santa Ana. The man taken into custody that day, identified by family members as 69-year-old Jesús Esparza, had just finished visiting his son at the facility on Halloween when federal agents detained him.
The Orange County Sheriff's Department said it received a complaint on November 3 alleging that personnel may have communicated with ICE agents, and that it immediately opened an internal investigation, according to NBC Los Angeles. A department review of video from the scene showed ICE agents parked outside the jail in an unmarked black SUV, with two sheriff's department members seen on the sidewalk appearing to speak with someone inside the vehicle for about five seconds. NBC4 obtained footage of the Halloween incident through a public records request.
According to the department's account, ICE agents later arrived in a second vehicle, exited, and entered the public courtyard outside the jail's visitor entrance, where they contacted and arrested a man the department described as appearing to be hiding in the courtyard. Family members told reporters Esparza was intercepted by federal agents as he was leaving after visiting one of his sons, a detail first reported in Spanish by Telemundo 52.
Family Says Esparza Has No Criminal Record
Esparza's daughter, Adriana Esparza, said her father works in construction, has no criminal record, and has lived in the United States since 2000. Family members said he is now being held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center, and relatives have expressed concern that he could be deported to Mexico after more than two decades in the country. Telemundo 52 said it asked ICE why Esparza was taken into custody.
Sheriff Barnes Pledges Accountability
Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said his department does not enforce federal immigration law and that this will not change, while also saying he would fully cooperate with ICE to the extent allowed by law to help keep serious criminal offenders from returning to communities. In remarks reported by Telemundo 52, Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento described a response he received from county authorities saying the department follows state law and does not participate in or assist federal immigration enforcement in violation of it. Barnes said personnel found to have acted outside the law or department policy would be held accountable, and he denied that the department cooperates with ICE in ways that violate state law.
Sheriff's Special Officers are typically assigned to security duties at county buildings, courthouses and correctional facilities, rather than enforcement roles tied to immigration. Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento sent a November 2 letter to Barnes raising concerns about Esparza's detention, the presence of federal agents outside the jail, and whether the department had violated the California Values Act, commonly known as SB 54.
What State Law Allows and Restricts
SB 54 has been in effect since January 2018 and limits how state and local law enforcement resources can be used to support federal immigration enforcement. The statutory text, available through California Legislative Information, allows a law enforcement official to cooperate with immigration authorities only if doing so would not violate federal, state or local law or local policy, and where cooperation is otherwise permitted under the act. Whether the two Orange County employees' conduct crossed that line is the central question the department's ongoing investigation is meant to answer.
The episode comes amid broader reports of federal immigration activity near county jail facilities elsewhere in California. Immigrant advocacy groups told the Orange County Register that federal agents had been staging almost daily for multiple hours outside the Orange County Sheriff's Intake Release Center and Santa Ana Police Department headquarters for at least two weeks. In Santa Clara County, observers reported seeing roughly 10 to 12 federal agents at local jails each day, and the county's Rapid Response Network said it had spotted 20 new ICE vehicles arriving from nine different states in recent weeks, according to Local News Matters. That county has since restricted access to its Elmwood Correctional Facility following what the outlet described as recent violent incidents involving federal immigration agents outside the jail, with a new policy requiring visitors to show identification and explain their purpose.
In San Mateo County, the Redwood City Pulse reported that ICE detained one person across the street from Maguire Correctional Facility on November 8 and arrested another person at an intersection near the jail the following morning. In San Mateo County, a proposed action addressed alleged ICE staging, and 21 arrests were reported.
