Three California law enforcement agencies rejected nearly 9,000 federal hold requests

Law enforcement agencies in three major California jurisdictions declined 8,901 requests from federal immigration officials to hold individuals, according to a 22-page report from the House Judiciary Committee released on Wednesday. The figures span from January 2020 through mid-2026 and focus on Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego.

The report, led by Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), breaks down the rejection rates by agency. Los Angeles police honored only four of 4,177 detainers received between January 2020 and June 2026. That represents a compliance rate of less than 0.1%. The San Francisco Sheriff’s Office rejected all 2,201 detainers it received during a period ending in August 2026.

In San Diego, county officials declined 2,527 detainers between January 2023 and June 2026. The report notes that 894 of those rejections occurred in the final year of that window. The committee argues that these numbers demonstrate a pattern of non-cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

ICE data cited in the report states that California authorities released 4,561 immigrants sought by federal agents between January 20, 2025, and early February 2026. The committee identified some of those individuals as having criminal histories that included homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping, burglary, weapons offenses, and child abuse. The report states that sanctuary policies forced local officers to release repeat and dangerous criminals onto California streets.

The document highlights specific cases to illustrate the impact of the detainer rejections. It cites the February 2022 Sacramento church shooting involving David Mora Rojas, who had been arrested five days prior and released on bail despite an ICE request for notification. It also details the November 2021 crash involving Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiana, a previously deported driver who killed two young passengers. The report does not identify a specific rejected detainer for Ortega-Anguiana before the crash.

Anatoly Varfolomeev, whose 19-year-old daughter was killed in the crash, testified to the committee in September. He described the tragedy as the direct result of an anti-American open border policy and urged lawmakers to end what he called the disgusting sanctuary madness. The report notes that California’s sanctuary framework dates to the 2013 Trust Act and the 2017 California Values Act, which restrict state resources from being used for federal immigration enforcement.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office previously disputed the notion that California blocks cooperation with ICE. In a statement from February, the administration noted that the state had coordinated the transfer of more than 12,000 people from state prisons to ICE custody since 2019. The governor’s office accused federal officials of failing to pick up roughly one in eight state prisoners with outstanding detainers. The Judiciary Committee advanced the Shut Down Sanctuary Policies Act in March, which would prohibit state and local measures that restrict cooperation with federal immigration authorities.