San Diego's sheriff kept transferring people to ICE without the warrants her own county's policy requires, and transfers nearly tripled.
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What happened
In December 2024, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors adopted a sanctuary policy requiring a judicial warrant before the Sheriff's Office may transfer someone in county jail custody to ICE. Sheriff Kelly Martinez publicly said she would not follow the policy, arguing the Board cannot set operational policy for her independently elected office. An inewsource investigation found at least 10 transfers between January and August 2025 that lacked the required judicial warrant, and by year's end the Sheriff's Office had transferred 83 people to ICE in 2025 — up from 30 in 2024 — with 30 of those 2025 transfers made without the judicial warrants the county policy requires.
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