As ICE stages raids across L.A., local police and officials say they are left in the dark

While California has sanctuary laws that limit police from directly helping immigration enforcement, former federal officials tell CNN there’s no prohibition against Immigration and Customs Enforcement sharing basic details about raids with police or government officials.

“We do not know where and when the next raids will be. That is the concern,” L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said on CNN Monday. “When we find out when and where the other raids are going to happen, that will determine how the police respond.”

That kind of information sharing is commonplace in other parts of the country, a CNN review of recent ICE actions found. Experts said those communications can help authorities prepare for the kind of violent clashes that erupted in Southern California over the weekend.

“You’ve really got to make sure that your state and local partners know when you are doing a large operation just to avoid any potential issues or confusion,” said John Sandweg, a former acting director of ICE during the Obama administration. “There is too much risk. It can lead to officer safety issues due to the confusion.”

It’s not clear when ICE stopped sharing information with Los Angeles-area police departments and city officials or why it has taken that step. The agency did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment on Monday.

The US attorney for California’s Central District suggested in an interview on Sunday that sanctuary policies were to blame for keeping L.A. law enforcement at arm’s length.

“We understand that they are not going to help us in immigration enforcement. We did not seek their assistance for any immigration-related operations,” Bill Essayli told NBC Los Angeles.

ICE generally decides whether to share advance warning of raids on a case-by-case basis, said Kieran Donahue, president of the National Sheriffs’ Association.

“In most areas, local agencies work collaboratively with ICE, receiving advance notice of enforcement actions and sometimes even providing support to help ensure public safety,” said Donahue, who is sheriff in Canyon County, Idaho.

Donahue added, “However, in sanctuary jurisdictions like Los Angeles, ICE may refrain from notifying local officials in advance due to concerns that those officials may obstruct or interfere with federal operations.”

Some of the key law enforcement and government agencies in Los Angeles confirmed that they did not receive warnings from ICE about its recent raids, including one on Friday targeting apparel makers in L.A.’s Fashion District. That action, as well as agents setting up a staging area outside a Home Depot in Paramount — a small municipality south of downtown L.A. — led to fiery weekend protests.“LAPD was not given advance notice,” Chief Jim McDonnell said of the operations. “As a result, we were not prepositioned to respond immediately to unrest related to those actions.”

LAPD’s response was delayed because of an inability to plan for appropriate staffing and equipment, the agency said. By the time the department received a call for help, hundreds of demonstrators had gathered and federal agents had already deployed irritants — creating what an LAPD press release called a “hazardous environment” for officers.

In a statement Saturday, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said the LAPD took more than two hours to respond to multiple calls for assistance with the unrest. McDonnell said his department responded within 38 minutes.

That lack of advance warning was echoed by Bass and Paramount Mayor Peggy Lemons. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to messages about whether the agency had communications in advance with ICE.

Kenneth Gray, a former FBI agent who now teaches criminal justice at the University of New Haven, told CNN that ICE normally gives local law enforcement a heads up in case there is a call for assistance.

“Previously, they would have contacted local law enforcement to say, ‘We’re in this area, we are conducting this operation,’” Gray said. “They may not give them a specific address, but they would tell them generally where they were at the time.”

But he said ICE does not have to inform local authorities about such plans, and in cities and states with constraints on cooperation with ICE, Gray said it isn’t surprising if they aren’t told in advance.

“Their concern, of course, is operational security in that there may be people being informed about ICE activity and be able to avoid being detained,” he said.

 

Long history of clashes

The Trump administration’s hardline approach to immigration has repeatedly put it at odds with California, a state that has positioned itself as a national leader in protecting undocumented immigrants.

A major flashpoint came in 2017, when the legislature passed the California Values Act, effectively declaring itself a sanctuary state. Barring a few exceptions, the law prohibits local law enforcement agencies from “using money or personnel to investigate, interrogate, detain, detect or arrest persons for immigration enforcement purposes.”

The regulation prompted then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to file a lawsuit arguing that the law obstructed federal immigration policies and enforcement. Federal courts have largely upheld California’s sanctuary policies.

Another flareup came in 2018, when then-Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf warned residents that ICE would perform raids around the city the next day. Sessions and the White House denounced her and said her advance warning put ICE officers at risk and allowed violent fugitives to escape.

During both Trump terms, his administration has used executive orders to target sanctuary jurisdictions and threatened to withhold federal dollars.

As Trump has staged an increasingly aggressive push to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants, ICE has raided workplaces and homes across the country. In many cases, local authorities have played a key role — particularly in jurisdictions where sheriff’s departments have signed agreements under Trump to assist in immigration enforcement.

Those partnerships have surged in recent months. Since Trump returned to the White House, ICE has signed over 500 agreements with local and state law enforcement agencies to help enforce immigration laws, according to federal data. That’s more than three times as many as the total number of agreements signed during Trump’s entire first term.

 

Under some of the agreements, local officers identify inmates in their jails without legal immigration status and coordinate with ICE to begin the deportation process. Other partnerships allow police officers or sheriff’s deputies to question and arrest undocumented immigrants in their communities during routine policing activities.

California is one of 10 states without any current agreements between ICE and local or state law enforcement, according to the data.

Press releases issued by ICE in recent weeks highlight the agency’s work with authorities in states without sanctuary policies — including Tennessee, Texas, and Florida — on worksite enforcement operations or in executing search warrants.

That hasn’t been the case in L.A. this month, according to some local police and city officials who say they have only learned of raids when they’re called in to quell conflicts. That’s what happened in Paramount on Saturday, the mayor told CNN.

Lemons said there was no communication with federal agents as they staged at a Home Depot. Police only scrambled to action when they learned of growing altercations between protestors and ICE agents.

She emphasized that city officials felt confident in their command structure and local response, adding that sheriff’s deputies cleared the streets at the end of the day with no major incidents.

Some experts said California police face a difficult tension between maintaining the trust of undocumented residents and also coming to the aid of federal authorities in trouble.

“For the police chief of Los Angeles, he has two constituencies. On the one hand, he has the community, the citizens of Los Angeles he has the laws to protect,” said Chuck Wexler, the head of the Police Executive Research Forum. “On the other hand, he has a responsibility to support another federal agency, because if those federal agents are overpowered, if they can’t maintain order, then you have a public safety issue where either those agents can get hurt or community members can get hurt.”

Wexler added, “It’s a delicate balancing act.”

Anna-Maja Rappard and Yahya Abou-Ghazala contributed to this report.