The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, like other law enforcement agencies in California, does not routinely check the immigration status of people it comes in contact with. And according to Sheriff John McMahon, residents are safer because of it.
“The only time a person in this county’s immigration status is questioned is by ICE, number one, and after they’ve been locked away, arrested and booked into one of our facilities. That’s it.”
That means low-level offenders who don’t have any chance of spending a night in jail won’t have their immigration status checked.
“We are very concerned about our cooperation with the communities that we serve,” he said. “We don’t want to do anything that would prevent people or would inhibit people from reporting a crime or reporting to us that they’ve been a victim of a crime. We don’t want anyone to think that, because of their status in the country, that they can’t call local law enforcement and ask for help. So, that’s why we don’t do any street level immigration enforcement.”
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