Prior to Steinle's death most California counties, including the entire Bay Area, had stopped working with ICE by mid-2014. Only 2 months after this tragedy, that has received national attention, four Bay Area counties including Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Marin, have agreed to notify ICE when inmates flagged for possible deportation are about to be released.
Alameda County has notified ICE about nearly 100 inmates for possible deportation in the past seven weeks, ICE took around 20 of them into custody. "We simply help ICE out and allow them to do their job," said Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern. Other counties like Contra Costa, are revaluating the new ICE notification program and telling them only about inmates who have committed serious crimes.
In Santa Clara County the Board of Supervisors, which controls jail policy, is set to rule on how to deal with ICE for the third time. Some on the Board want a limited cooperation with only those who pose a serious physical harm to the community to be handed over to ICE, while the Sherriff's Office wants a broader view for the policy on detaining illegal inmates. In a written statement last week District Attorney Jeff Rosen said, "Public safety requires that the county notify ICE before releasing serious and violent criminals back into our community."
Here are the San Francisco Bay Area counties and where they currently stand on cooperating with ICE polices:
San Mateo County-Full cooperation
Alameda County- Full cooperation
Marin County-Full cooperation
Contra Costa Country- Cooperation for serious and violent inmates
Santa Clara County- No cooperation but is considering limited cooperation
San Francisco- No cooperation
The shooting of Kate Steinle this past July has influenced many in the San Francisco Bay Area to revisit their sanctuary laws for illegal aliens. Even two of California's state senators have called for increased cooperation between communities and ICE in regards to illegal aliens with extensive criminal records or those that have been previously deported.
Read More on this story at the San Jose Mercury News.
