L.A. County supervisor wants to look at options on immigration, jails

Immigrant rights advocates urged Los Angeles County officials Tuesday to further limit their relationship with immigration authorities in light of Monday’s announcement by the city of Los Angeles that police will no longer heed federal requests to detain possibly deportable inmates past their scheduled release dates unless a judge has vetted the requests.

Los Angeles County -- like many others in California -- has already suspended the practice of “immigration holds” in the county jails, but continues to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in other ways, the advocates said.

Shiu-Ming Cheer, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, said L.A. County Sheriff’s Department continues to give information on immigrant inmates’ jail release dates to immigration officials so they can be taken into custody upon their release.

Cheer asked the Board of Supervisors to “demonstrate a united front” with the city by setting policies that would bar federal immigration agents from entering Sheriff’s Department facilities and end the practice of giving information on arrestees’ release dates and home addresses to immigration authorities.

The city of Los Angeles announced its change in policy as the result of an April federal court ruling that found an Oregon county was liable for damages after holding an inmate beyond her release date so that she could be transferred to immigration authorities.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky asked county attorneys Tuesday to give the board a report on the county’s liability under the ruling and what could be done to limit it.

“I’d like to know what our options are in context of what city has done,” he said.

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