Overview
- On Tuesday the House Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jim Jordan, sent four letters to police chiefs and sheriffs in San Francisco and San Diego demanding communications, policies and counts of ICE detainers with a June 16 deadline to respond.
- The letters ask for documents about interactions with ICE, local rules on non-U.S. citizens, and the number of detainers received and declined going back several years.
- Committee Republicans argued sanctuary rules have public-safety consequences and cited ICE data that California declined about 4,561 detainers in one year and high-profile cases including the 2022 hammer attack on Paul Pelosi’s husband and a November 2025 hit-and-run that killed 11-year-old Aiden Torres De Paz.
- Local officials point to California law and recent city and county ordinances that bar honoring ICE detainers, prohibit asking immigration status, and require judicial warrants for federal access, and San Francisco’s sheriff has said his office has honored only one detainer out of thousands.
- If the agencies’ responses do not satisfy the committee, the probe could expand to subpoenas or further oversight actions, and the letters will shape a broader Republican effort to press sanctuary jurisdictions nationwide.