SLO County sheriff has released 21 people to ICE. How does the law work?
The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office has released 21 people to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said during a webinar panel hosted by the League of Women Voters of San Luis Obispo County on Tuesday.
After the panel, the Sheriff’s Office declined to specify in what time frame those 21 people were turned over and instead told The Tribune to wait for a response to a Public Records Act request for further information.
The league used the panel to ask local law enforcement leaders about their role in immigration enforcement.
The panel included Parkinson, Grover Beach Police Department Chief Jim Munro, San Luis Obispo Police Department Chief Rick Scott and Atascadero Police Department Chief Dan Suttles.
Two California laws and a handful of federal court cases limit local law enforcement’s ability to collaborate with ICE. During the panel, the sheriff and police chiefs discussed how those laws inform their interactions with ICE when federal officers operate in San Luis Obispo County.
Escalation of ICE activity is a growing concern in San Luis Obispo County.
ICE detained at least two people outside the county courthouse since President Donald Trump was elected, and three people from the San Luis Obispo County Jail last week.
The panel was the first time the Sheriff’s Office shared specifics on how many people it has released into ICE custody.
Here are some key takeaways from Tuesday’s panel.
Can ICE pick up inmates from SLO County Jail?
Parkinson said state law has largely prevented the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office from helping ICE.
Senate Bill 54, the California Values Act, prohibits local law enforcement from detaining people at the request of ICE or transferring most inmates to ICE custody. The law does have exceptions for inmates with federal arrest warrants or those who have been convicted of certain crimes.
When the Sheriff’s Office books an inmate into the San Luis Obispo County Jail, a deputy takes the inmate’s fingerprint and enters it into state and federal databases to identify them, Parkinson said. If the inmate is undocumented, the database will notify ICE of the inmate’s location.
Then, ICE can send an immigration detainer to the Sheriff’s Office. A detainer asks the sheriff to notify ICE before the inmate is released from jail, or to hold the inmate in custody for 48 hours longer than usual, so ICE has time to pick them up.
Court rulings in 2014 and 2015, however, said it is unconstitutional for local law enforcement to comply with detainer requests because a detainer doesn’t require a judicial signature, Parkinson said.
“Because it does not go through the court and lacks the supported probable cause, we would be violating the Constitution by honoring it, because that person was not allowed due process,” he said.
However, if the inmate has a qualifying prior conviction, including assault with a deadly weapon, arson, domestic violence, sale of narcotics, criminal threats, vehicular manslaughter or felony vandalism, the Sheriff’s Office can tell ICE when that inmate will be released from custody. The Sheriff’s Office still can’t deny them bail or hold them longer than usual, per Senate Bill 54.
When an inmate has a qualifying conviction or federal arrest warrant, the Sheriff’s Office will allow ICE to enter the jail’s sally port, and then deputies will hand over the inmate, Parkinson said.
But recently, Parkinson said, ICE has been sending in more federal arrest warrants, which the agency “does have a duty and responsibility” to comply with.
He said it’s a method ICE has been using more in the past eight months to a year, adding it was “a fairly new process.”
On Oct. 21, a witness saw ICE take two inmates into custody from the San Luis Obispo County Jail lobby. Then, the jail lifted its gate to allow an ICE vehicle into its sally port.
The Sheriff’s Office spokesperson confirmed that ICE took three people into custody from the jail that day. At first, the spokesperson said one of the inmates had a federal arrest warrant, while the other two had prior convictions that met Senate Bill 54 requirements.
Later, she said only one of the inmates had a prior qualifying conviction. She did not directly answer whether the Sheriff’s Office notified ICE about the inmates’ release on bail.
As of Tuesday, Parkinson said, the agency had turned over 13 people with federal arrest warrants after they completed their local charges.
The jail also had four people in custody who had federal arrest warrants as of Tuesday, he said.
The Sheriff’s Office could transfer them to ICE custody when they complete their sentence, he said.
Parkinson said he thinks transferring eligible inmates to ICE custody enhances community safety.
“Our mission is to protect our community,” Parkinson said. “If we have people that had prior violent offenses — releasing them back into the community is not keeping our community safe, as far as I’m concerned.”
Senate Bill 54 made it more difficult for the jails to work with ICE, Parkinson said. As a result, he said he’s concerned that ICE now searches communities for undocumented immigrants with a criminal record instead of going to the jail — which exposes undocumented household members without a criminal background to a higher risk of deportation, too.
Can the sheriff communicate with ICE about inmates?
Before Assembly Bill 2792 was passed in 2016, ICE officers would go to the jail two to three times per week to interview inmates they wanted to deport.
The law, known as the Truth Act, requires jails to receive written consent from an inmate before allowing ICE to interview them.
The Truth Act also orders law enforcement to tell an inmate and their attorney if ICE has been informed of their release date and time, and requires local agencies to provide inmates with a copy of ICE’s detainer or transfer requests and whether the agency intends to comply with it prior to their transfer to ICE.
This year, ICE requested to interview eight inmates — only one inmate consented to the interview, Parkinson said.
During the webinar, Parkinson said ICE could use court records to independently figure out what day an inmate will be released from jail.
“If an incarcerated person is taken to court in the morning, and the judge releases that person, at some point, they return to the jail. They’re processed and released,” Parkinson said, noting that ICE could wait in the lobby for the inmate’s release.
All inmates are released into the lobby when they’ve posted bail or completed their sentence, Parkinson said. The Sheriff’s Office will not tell ICE officers to leave if they’re sitting in the lobby, he said.
“We have no authority to keep anybody out of a public, open facility,” he said.
The Sheriff’s Office only coordinates releases to ICE in the jail’s sally port, Parkinson said.
If a resident believes local law enforcement violated the law by collaborating with ICE, they can report the incident to the California Attorney General’s Office or file a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security Office in Santa Maria or Ventura.
How to identify ICE vs. a police officer
Another major question brought up during the webinar was how to spot the difference between an ICE incident and a police one.
Local law enforcement will not help ICE carry out immigration enforcement actions, as it is against state law, the three police chiefs said.
The public can call the Atascadero, San Luis Obispo or Grover Beach police departments if they want to know if an operation is being carried out by ICE or local police, the chiefs added.
State law requires local law enforcement to always have some kind of identification, such as a badge or license plates, and officers will always identify themselves as police if asked, Munro said, even if the officers are operating in plain clothes or vehicles.
ICE agents have been known to carry out operations without identifying themselves in plain clothes or while wearing police vests, which can cause confusion in the community.
Suttles said he found ICE’s use of vests that say “police” on them “frustrating” because community members can mistake ICE officers for local law enforcement.
Parkinson shared the frustration.
In one incident outside the courthouse where a man was detained by plain clothes officers who refused to identify themselves, Parkinson said his deputies who were inside the courthouse responded to the commotion outside.
“They didn’t know they were ICE agents arresting this gentleman, and I can tell you, I made a phone call to the ICE supervisor quite upset because it could have ended in a very tragic situation,” Parkinson said. “When you have uniform personnel coming out and you see a scuffle on the sidewalk, that’s not a good thing to be walking into, especially when those plain clothes people are armed.”
Parkinson said he made it “perfectly clear” to ICE that he did not want a situation like that happening again, but added that he cannot control ICE or their agents’ actions.
ICE did agree to notify the Sheriff’s Office when they will be “at a location,” Parkinson said.
In another instance, Suttles said his officer was accused of escorting ICE officers who were driving outside the courthouse. The reality, he said, was that the officer was returning to the courthouse after lunch.
He said it’s important for the public to know that local law enforcement officers are regularly at the courthouse to testify on crimes they’ve investigated, he said, adding that his officers cannot and will not aid ICE in immigration enforcement.
Suttles said the confusion led to a positive conversation with 805 Undocufund leader Cesar Vazquez, who he described as a “very impressive young man.”
“This gave us the opportunity to sit down and discuss this and for him to ask me questions about why we were there and what transpired,” Suttles said. “It also allowed me to have an opportunity to talk to somebody that is representing so many other people that may not feel comfortable coming directly to me, or to any police officer for that matter.”
Scott said the San Luis Obispo Police Department is not involved in any sort of immigration enforcement action, and hopes to continue to build trust with the community on this topic.
The San Luis Obispo Police Department and other local agencies have immigration information on their websites, he said, and he hopes to continue having conversations with the public and stakeholders to answer questions.
“I want to be accessible,” he said.
He encouraged people interested or affected by immigration issues to not only reach out to community organizations, like 805 Undocufund, SLO County UndocuSupport and the SLO County Diversity Coalition, but also to local law enforcement.
This story was originally published November 3, 2025 at 10:54 AM.
