SLO County sheriff will share data about ICE at forum. Activists say it’s overdue
Wearing orange bandanas and T-shirts, about 15 immigrant rights activists urged the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors to require the Sheriff’s Office to share data about its collaboration with ICE at a meeting on Tuesday.
California’s Truth Act requires San Luis Obispo County to host a community forum if the Sheriff’s Office transfers inmates to ICE during a given year. That forum must occur “during the following year” with a 30-day notice to the public, the law said.
The last Truth Act forum was on Jan. 16, 2024, Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Tony Cipolla told The Tribune. He said he did not know which year’s data they presented at that meeting.
805 UndocuFund rapid response organizer Cesar Vasquez urged the Sheriff’s Office to host a forum for 2024 data by the end of the year — or risk violating the Truth Act.
“I’m here to fight against one specific injustice affecting everyone in this room today. I’m here to talk about the lack of transparency and honesty coming from the sheriff’s department,” Vasquez said during public comment, while looking directly at the sheriff’s deputies sitting in the audience.
Vasquez and his fellow activists said the Sheriff’s Office was overdue for a forum on 2024 transfers, and also called on the agency to schedule a forum for 2025 data, too.
“Without this transparency, the community cannot trust the little the sheriff is telling us about the department’s cooperation with DHS and ICE,” county resident Susan Mackey said during public comment.
After public comment, Undersheriff Chad Nicholson took to the podium to announce that the Sheriff’s Office has scheduled a Truth Act forum for Jan. 27.
Deputies will share data from 2024 and 2025 at the forum, he said.
“We believe in full transparency,” Nicholson said at the meeting. “We have absolutely nothing to hide.”
SLO County sheriff to share data about inmates transferred to ICE
Senate Bill 54 allows the Sheriff’s Office to transfer inmates to ICE if they have a federal arrest warrant or qualifying convictions for certain crimes, including murder, sexual assault, unlawful possession of a firearm and other serious or violent felonies.
In those cases, the Sheriff’s Office will allow ICE to enter the jail’s sally port, and then deputies will transfer the inmate to ICE custody, Sheriff Ian Parkinson said at a League of Women Voters webinar in November.
805 UndocuFund rapid responders have also witnessed ICE agents waiting in the jail lobby for people to be released — then taking them into custody from there.
At a Truth Act forum, the Sheriff’s Office must share data about how many people it transferred to ICE, along with how and when those transfers occurred, the law said. The county must also allow public comment during the meeting.
The Sheriff’s Office scheduled a Truth Act forum for Jan. 27 to occur during the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors meeting, Nicholson said.
The agency will start advertising the meeting during the week of Dec. 22, he said.
The Sheriff’s Office planned the meeting for January so it could include all of 2025’s data in the report, Nicholson said.
Did the Sheriff’s Office violate the Truth Act?
The last Truth Act forum was held on Jan. 16, 2024, at Pacheco Elementary School, Cipolla said.
Cipolla sent The Tribune a flier for the event, which advertised it as “an informal evening about immigration” hosted by the San Luis Coastal Unified School District. The flier called the event an “Immigration Community Forum.”
The forum included speakers from the Sheriff’s Office, the San Luis Obispo Police Department, SLO County UndocuSupport, Corazón Latino, Assemblymember Dawn Addis’ office and Congressman Salud Carbajal’s office, the flier said.
Vasquez said the event did not count as a Truth Act forum because it wasn’t advertised as such, and because the Sheriff’s Office and the county did not organize the event — which are requirements of the Truth Act.
The Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the legitimacy of the 2024 forum.
Additionally, Vasquez said the Sheriff’s Office will miss its deadline to present data about inmate transfers that occurred between Jan. 16, 2024, and Dec. 31, 2024.
“It goes to show that the sheriff does not know how to follow the rules under the Truth Act,” he told The Tribune after the meeting. “If they cannot follow the simple procedure to show that the arrests are legal, if they are not putting in the effort to make it known that the re-arrests are legal — what are they doing that’s illegal?”
Vasquez said it’s up to the Board of Supervisors to hold the Sheriff’s Office accountable for missing its Truth Act deadlines by withholding funding from the agency.
At the meeting, the Board of Supervisors did not suggest disciplining the Sheriff’s Office.
But Supervisor Bruce Gibson advised the Sheriff’s Office to post real-time data on its website every time it transfers an inmate to ICE.
“That goes a great ways to confirming the transparency that I believe you’re committed to,” he said.
He also suggested that the Sheriff’s Office post real-time data about when ICE hangs out in the jail parking lot waiting for inmates to be released, a tactic that he said is part of ICE’s “despicable reign of terror.”
Cipolla said real-time updates would be difficult to implement, as they would require significant staff time, IT infrastructure upgrades to the website and a review of all correspondence to make sure it complies with federal and state public records laws.
“With all of these operational, legal and resource concerns in mind, we will take a closer look at the issue and explore what options may be feasible moving forward,” Cipolla said in a statement to The Tribune.
