San Diego County Sheriff Puts End To ICE Immigration Holds

"San Diego County jails no longer will take part in the practice of holding inmates past their jail release dates to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to take custody of them, Sheriff Bill Gore announced Thursday.

"The Sheriff's Department will detain someone past their local release date if presented with an arrest warrant based on a probable-cause finding by ICE," Gore said. "In cases where ICE has an immigration interest in one of our inmates and no ICE arrest warrant has been presented, we will continue our practice of notifying ICE of the date, time and location of our inmates' release."

Gore gave no reason for the policy change, but the American Civil Liberties Union attributed it to a recent federal court decision holding that a local jail had violated the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by granting an immigration hold without probable cause or a court-approved warrant." - KBPS, May 29, 2014.