Alameda County says it cut ties with ICE. This program says otherwise.

This text was initially printed by Bolts, a nonprofit newsroom that covers native political energy.

For the reason that begin of President Donald Trump’s second time period, native officers within the Bay Space have labored to layer on extra protections for immigrant households. In Alameda County, a various group that’s dwelling to the liberal bastions of Berkeley and Oakland, officers on the Board of Supervisors have devoted thousands and thousands to fund a rapid response hotline for reporting ICE activity and responding to arrests, in addition to immigrant rights trainings and authorized protection for individuals in deportation proceedings. Officers additionally convened a survey of the county’s information practices to focus on ways in which ICE might entry delicate data on immigrants—like information on local ID programs for immigrants that might inadvertently help federal agents target people who are undocumented. And Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez introduced this yr her division has a “zero contact coverage” with ICE. 

“We don’t talk with ICE,” Sanchez stated at a county board meeting in February. “We’re not sharing data. We’re not accumulating data associated to any sort of documentation standing.”

However the Alameda County Sheriff’s Workplace obtained over $1 million from the federal authorities final yr in alternate for sharing delicate data, together with names, birthplace and nation of origin, underneath the State Prison Alien Help Program (SCAAP). This system is managed partly by ICE, and makes use of federal {dollars} to reimburse native jails and prisons for the prices of detaining undocumented immigrants. 

This system helps native and state budgets nationwide — even in so-called sanctuary cities and states that forbid sure legislation enforcement cooperation and information sharing with ICE—by paying counties based mostly on the variety of undocumented individuals detained in native lockups for at the least 4 consecutive days who’re convicted of felonies or two misdemeanors. The information despatched to ICE consists of private data like names, ID numbers, particulars on the power holding them, details about their convictions, and the place they have been born.

A spokesperson for Sanchez’s workplace defended the county’s participation in this system in a written assertion to Bolts and claimed that the workplace doesn’t “present documentation or immigration standing with the intention to obtain reimbursement, as instructed.” Reasonably, based on the workplace, it offers a listing of details about the county’s incarcerated inhabitants, together with “Place of Beginning,” to a third-party contractor (known as Justice Advantages, Inc, or JBI) that works with the county to determine which inmates qualify for the grant, which is just utilized to undocumented immigrants. The workplace stated this information doesn’t quantity to “data on immigration standing.” 

“To reiterate: at no level does the Sheriff’s Workplace ask for or accumulate data on immigration standing, neither is such data required for us to offer to JBI for the SCAAP grant,” the assertion learn.

However some jurisdictions have chosen to withdraw from SCAAP lately to maintain from feeding extra data into ICE’s deportation dragnet. Proper throughout the Bay from Oakland, officers in San Francisco terminated their county’s participation in SCAAP forward of the primary Trump administration, although Alameda County didn’t observe swimsuit. Not less than one sheriff, in Wisconsin’s Dane County, has also quit since Trump’s return to energy.

Immigrant rights advocates who’ve pushed for his or her counties to finish participation in this system say native police shouldn’t depend on funding from immigration enforcement. They argue that these monetary ties might encourage native police to focus on these perceived as immigrants, examine the documentation standing of individuals detained on the jail, and might affect sheriffs to align behind Trump’s deportation agenda. Whereas SCAAP doesn’t entail real-time data-sharing on immigrants serving out convictions in native jails, it does present ICE with an in depth annual snapshot; advocates pushing to finish native ties to this system level out that sentences served in native lockups quite than state jail are usually for minor or nonviolent offenses. 

Throughout Trump’s first time period, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors questioned the county’s participation in SCAAP as a part of a broader evaluate of native insurance policies affecting immigrants. The county organized an Advert Hoc Committee for Immigrant and Refugee Rights to evaluate the federal government’s interactions with ICE in addition to the sources accessible to communities impacted by deportations. The committee in the end couldn’t decide whether or not SCAAP violated the state’s sanctuary legal guidelines banning officers from investigating immigration standing and sharing that information with ICE; based on the committee’s evaluate, it’s the personal contractor that in the end sends a “checklist of probably eligible inmates” to the federal Bureau of Justice Help, which administers the grant program alongside ICE. Any delicate information, the committee concluded, was solely shared in an annual report back to ICE lengthy after any immigrants named as being in county custody had already been launched.

The committee did in the end recommend that the sheriff rethink collaborating in this system as one of many suggestions issued in its final report in late 2021. Alameda County has remained in SCAAP, taking up $9.3 million for the reason that begin of Trump’s first time period. 

Peter Mancina, a researcher and marketing consultant on sanctuary coverage who led Alameda County’s evaluate of data-sharing practices with ICE throughout the first Trump administration, says officers ought to once more query their participation in SCAAP as Trump dramatically escalates his focusing on of immigrants throughout his second time period. Mancina informed Bolts that despite the fact that the info shared by means of SCAAP isn’t utilized by ICE to make arrests in actual time, the federal {dollars} nonetheless give native sheriffs “a perverse incentive to police immigration.” 

“The vital problem is making a funding stream that’s particularly tied to immigration enforcement,” Mancina informed Bolts. ​​”It’s actually about incentivizing police to cooperate with the federal authorities. It maintains this relationship of interdependence.”

Thirty-five California counties nonetheless share data with ICE

Whereas participation in SCAAP has waned through the years within the face of shrinking reimbursement charges and a rising aversion towards ICE, over 400 counties obtained cash by means of this system final yr. This system paid out almost $145 million final yr to counties and jail techniques throughout the nation, with the biggest award of over $45 million going to the California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. 

The data that native and state legislation enforcement alternate for SCAAP funding feeds right into a a lot bigger internet of ICE surveillance. Beginning in 2008, the federal Safe Communities program rolled out throughout the nation to offer sure data to ICE on anybody arrested and booked into an area lockup — like fingerprints, costs, and different private data — in order that the company can file so-called detainers, or requests for native police to carry somebody for immigration enforcement. 

Even when the rapid dangers are much less acute with a program like SCAAP, advocates who observe native police cooperation with ICE have lengthy anxious that, by collaborating within the data-sharing program, native police are incentivized to gather and ship ICE extra data than they might in any other case share — specifically, the immigration standing of individuals in native jails, which might then be turned over to ICE in alternate for federal cash. “It has at all times been a priority that the incentives behind SCAAP are dangerous. Even whether it is pennies on the greenback, it creates an incentive to incarcerate people who find themselves not residents,” stated Lena Graber, senior legal professional with the Immigrant Authorized Useful resource Heart, which is headquartered in San Francisco. 

Some sanctuary insurance policies have prompted native legislation enforcement to drop SCAAP, even when they don’t explicitly ban participation. As an example, all jails in Washington successfully stopped receiving SCAAP grants by 2020 after the state enacted the Hold Washington Working Act, which prohibited native police from accumulating the data on immigration standing that this system requires. The state later set aside funds to backfill the loss of revenue for counties that relied on SCAAP cash. 

California’s TRUST Act, which lawmakers handed in 2013, prevents state and native police and lockups from detaining and turning individuals over to ICE over minor crimes, like most site visitors offenses. The California Values Act handed in 2017 additionally limits officers from questioning immigrants about their standing, however sheriffs are granted some leeway by carvouts that exclude many convictions from that safety. Regardless of the restrictions on data gathering and sharing, 35 counties in California nonetheless take part in SCAAP.

The California State Sheriffs’ Affiliation initially lobbied in opposition to a statewide sanctuary legislation when it was first proposed greater than a decade in the past. Angela Chan, a longtime immigrant rights legal professional who labored with the Free SF Coalition, which fought for years for statewide sanctuary protections, informed Bolts she’d by no means come throughout SCAAP till a number of sheriffs who opposed the TRUST Act raised considerations that the legislation might value them federal funding that they obtained by means of this system. San Francisco’s sheriff throughout that point, Michael Hennessey, supported the TRUST Act, however nonetheless had some hesitation about pulling out of this system. 

​​”We solely actually appeared into SCAAP as a result of sheriffs introduced it up as an excuse to proceed to work with ICE,” Chan informed Bolts. “The sheriff in San Francisco was extra aligned with us when it comes to values. He was involved with questions of racial profiling, and wished to stick to our sanctuary ordinance. The funding was a consideration for him, however it was a smaller level of pushback from him in comparison with extra conservative sheriffs.”

The state sheriff’s affiliation, helmed on the time by then Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern, in the end dropped its opposition to the TRUST Act earlier than its passage, however fought subsequent plans to strengthen protections just like the state’s restrictions on private ICE detention facilities. 

In San Francisco, Chan and different organizers pushed for the San Francisco County Sheriff’s Division to cease taking SCAAP grants. In 2016, the county ended its participation within the data-sharing program and hasn’t rejoined it since. 

Federal officers have beforehand tried to make use of SCAAP funds to stress native governments to dismantle sanctuary protections, even earlier than Trump. Beneath President Barack Obama, justice division officers in 2016 threatened to limit SCAAP reimbursements to companies that restricted cooperation with ICE, and launched an investigation into some departments — although the division took no enforcement action against sanctuary jurisdictions earlier than Obama left workplace.

After Trump took over in 2017, he doubled down in his first weeks in workplace with an government order to drag federal funds from sanctuary cities in an try and pressure them to dismantle protections, zeroing in on cash that went to legislation enforcement companies: Justice Help Grants, that are the biggest supply of federal funding for native police, in addition to SCAAP cash, which in contrast usually makes up solely a small fraction of native budgets. A federal judge ruled that year that the coverage was illegally coercive and violated the only real authority of Congress to manage federal funding. 

Trump’s reelection has ushered in a brand new wave of assaults on sanctuary insurance policies, main once more to stress from advocates for native police to chop ties with ICE data-sharing applications like SCAAP.

Tim Muth, a senior legal professional with the ACLU of Wisconsin, informed Bolts that the group began monitoring widely-used federal grants like SCAAP as a part of their 2022 report on the state’s jail-to-deportation pipeline. Muth says the group launched a marketing campaign that yr to drag Dane County, dwelling to Madison, out of this system after studying that the state’s different progressive stronghold, Milwaukee County, stopped counting on the funds almost a decade in the past.

“It was putting to us that, of the 2 main counties in Wisconsin which are each seen as progressive and to have good insurance policies with respect to immigration enforcement, that Dane County was receiving this cash, however Milwaukee wasn’t,” Muth informed Bolts. 

The ACLU’s marketing campaign succeeded in late January, when Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett agreed to cease sharing information on detained immigrants and end participation in SCAAP. 

Barrett attributed his resolution to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. “[W]hile the data compiled for these grant {dollars} was historic and posed little concern amongst our various group up to now, instances have modified and we should adapt accordingly,” Barrett stated in a press release after dropping this system. Barrett additionally stated that “the method of compiling information for this grant required vital employees time,” and added, “Shifting ahead, these sources will probably be redirected towards extra impactful initiatives in our jail, akin to re-entry coordination and rehabilitation programming.”

Most counties don’t obtain sufficient cash from SCAAP to encourage officers to arrest immigrants, Muth stated. However this system does give legislation enforcement an incentive to analyze the immigration standing of individuals already of their custody. Whereas that data won’t assist ICE make arrests, it nonetheless “​​feeds extra data of the prison historical past of undocumented people into the ICE information machine,” he stated. 

“ICE has said that they’re solely going after undocumented individuals who have dedicated crimes,” Muth stated. “You’ll be able to see how a database of people that have served convictions in county jails, fed by individuals asking for SCAAP cash, turns into one of many sources of data for the deportation machine.”

A county committee to look at privateness dangers

Within the Bay Space, Graber with the Immigrant Authorized Useful resource Heart says that activists in Alameda County won’t have been as centered on SCAAP as San Francisco was throughout the first Trump administration as a result of they have been “placing out different fires.” 

Ahern, Alameda County’s sheriff throughout these years, drew backlash from grassroots groups for lobbying against sanctuary protections. After the state handed the TRUST Act, Ahern directed the department to sidestep those protections by notifying federal brokers forward of time when and the place undocumented immigrants can be launched from his custody so that they might be instantly put into ICE custody with out his deputies instantly transferring them. After the state banned the sharing of release times in 2017, organizers accused Ahern of exploiting one other loophole to proceed aiding ICE. 

“The prior sheriff was positively extra pleasant to ICE in a variety of methods,” Graber stated of Ahern, who was ousted in 2022 by Sanchez, the present sheriff who ran on reforming the department. “He was handing individuals over to ICE.”

The county’s present efforts to bolster protections amid Trump’s barrage of assaults on sanctuary cities is organized underneath a brand new physique known as the Alameda County Collectively for All Advert Hoc Committee. At a February assembly, the committee introduced collectively information privateness consultants to provide displays on potential exposures in native company’s file preserving techniques to ICE surveillance techniques. The committee’s chair, Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, agreed on the assembly to advance a survey of Alameda County’s information and retention practices, in addition to a evaluate of native privateness insurance policies—much like the evaluate the county undertook throughout the first Trump years. 

In response to Bolts‘ questions on SCAAP, Fortunato Bas offered a press release saying, “I take the problems of information privateness and the security of all our group members very significantly,” pointing to the brand new evaluate and including, “we’re fastidiously evaluating what delicate information is being collected.”

“The Alameda County Sheriff’s Workplace doesn’t request or accumulate immigration standing throughout any encounter with the general public, together with interactions with our incarcerated inhabitants,” Sanchez’s workplace stated in response to Bolts’ questions on this system. “The Alameda County Sheriff’s Workplace stays in full compliance with the California Values Act.”

Native immigrant rights organizers say the sheriff has proactively labored with them to form division coverage. If the county once more questions its participation in SCAAP, it could be in a stronger place to withdraw now that it has a sheriff who has espoused a “zero contact coverage” with ICE, Chan stated. 

Mancina, the researcher who appeared into SCAAP as a part of Alameda County’s earlier evaluate of insurance policies that collaborate with ICE, says that this system features as a instrument for aligning native governments behind federal immigration priorities, which he says have grown more and more excessive by “remodeling each single one who has a civil immigration violation right into a prison.” As organizers give attention to ending extra pressing types of native legislation enforcement cooperation with immigration enforcement that instantly assists with ICE detention and deportations, Mancina says that SCAAP is a reminder of the monetary ties that native police should immigration enforcement—and, he says, underscores the problem of “absolutely disengaging native police from ICE.” 

“Sanctuary insurance policies don’t finish the connection with the federal authorities. They only remodel them,” Mancina stated. With SCAAP, he added, “It’s much less concerning the variety of individuals deported, and extra about making a tradition of worry and horror.”

Editor’s be aware: Roberto Morales, a public data officer with the sheriff’s workplace, declined to reply a question from The Oaklandside about whether or not it has undertaken a evaluate of its participation within the SCAAP program since Bolts first printed this text, saying solely that the division complies with California legislation.