Glendale ends ICE contract, no longer holds detainees

Amid rising tensions over immigration raids in the Los Angeles area, the city of Glendale announced Sunday night it has ended its agreement with the federal government to house detainees captured by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“After careful consideration, the City of Glendale has decided to end its agreement with U.S. Homeland Security/ICE to house federal immigration detainees,” the city said in a statement posted online. “This local decision reflects our core values: public safety, transparency, and community trust.”

As of Monday morning, the city jail held no ICE detainees, officials said.

The decision came after The Times reported that Glendale had continued its 2007 ICE contract and agreed to house detainees at its city jail despite California passing SB 54, known as the California Values Act, which prohibited local and state municipalities from using funds for federal immigration enforcement purposes, including the use of jail facilities. The landmark law made California the first sanctuary state in the nation.

Other municipalities terminated their contracts after then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 54. But Glendale’s then-Police Chief Robert Castro, who opposed the law, did not. At the time, the city manager warned against nixing the contract in a bid to maintain a good relationship with federal authorities. Until recently, Glendale remained the only known jurisdiction in the state to sidestep California sanctuary laws.

Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian said the city has held 82 ICE detainees since January. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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In its statement Sunday, the city maintained that its agreement remained in compliance with state law.

“Nevertheless, despite the transparency and safeguards the City has upheld, the City recognizes that public perception of the ICE contract — no matter how limited or carefully managed, no matter the good — has become divisive,” the city said.

The city said ending the contract and transferring the detainees far afield would make it difficult for some families to visit those being detained by ICE.

Najarian said Monday that the decision was not easy, and councilmembers were split on the issue. He said he was against canceling the contract because keeping detainees at the Glendale jail “is clearly the most humane and most accommodating method.”

ICE would not scale back its operations just because Glendale’s facility was no longer available, he said.

“The alternative to closing the Glendale facility and canceling the contract is either maintaining the detainees in that basement of the federal detention center or immediately shipping them out to Arizona or some other location, where by the time the attorneys or the family know what has occurred and where they are, they’re perhaps on a plane already to be deported,” he said.

Sarah Houston, an immigration lawyer at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, raised the issue at a city council meeting last week after learning that a client who was held in Glendale had been without food for nine hours and was due to be transferred to multiple facilities. She questioned why Glendale was adhering to a decades-old agreement that runs afoul of SB 54, while city council officials defended the decision.

“After the horrific raids and violations this weekend, it is all the more important that our local communities stand together to protect our immigrant brothers and sisters as intended in the California Values Act,” she said after the city’s announcement.

Andrés Kwon, a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said that with a population that is more than 50% immigrant, Glendale should be “a beacon for immigrants’ rights.”

“As we’ve witnessed masked ICE and federal agents abducting Angelenos, locking up entire families in basements, and separating families — how could the city of Glendale ensure that the Angelenos it held for ICE weren’t unconstitutionally detained?” Kwon said.

Amigos Unidos for Immigrant Justice, an immigrant rights advocacy group in Glendale, said in a statement that ending the contract is the “right step toward rebuilding trust” in the city.

“As we move forward, Glendale is our home, our community, and our responsibility. We believe deeply in protecting what makes Glendale strong: a commitment to fairness, compassion, and civic integrity,” the group said.