SAN JOSE, CA – Since President Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 this year, he has repeatedly threatened to deport millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States, reports the Mercury News.
However, during the first four weeks of his presidency, immigration enforcement in the Bay Area has remained limited, the Mercury News writes.
Aside from targeted ICE operations in San Jose over two days in late January resulting in “a handful of arrests” and a separate operation in Concord, not much enforcement activity has occurred, according to the Mercury News, and experts argue two main barriers are preventing these mass deportations: limited detention facilities and California’s status as a sanctuary state.
Mercury News quotes Caitlin Patler, an associate professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, who stated, “ICE simply does not have the logistical capacity to pull off the mass deportations promised or even outlined in the various executive orders, directives and memos,”
One of the biggest obstacles to mass deportations is the limited capacity of ICE detention centers, the article states, noting ICE lacks “the funding, the personnel or the detention capacity to carry out the mass deportation that the administration has threatened to carry out.”
The news outlet said the San Francisco field office—which oversees Northern California, Hawaii, Guam, and Saipan—only has two detention facilities in Central California: the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield, which holds 400 beds, and the Golden State Annex in McFarland, which has 700 beds.
There are logistical difficulties involved in transporting detainees from the Bay Area to facilities located in Central California. Although ICE is described as having a “pretty well-oiled machine,” the Mercury News reports, it also suggests carrying out mass deportations would require the agency to “dramatically change how it operates.”
In an effort to expand its capacity, ICE has issued a request for information to establish a new facility within a two-hour commute from San Francisco, with space for 850 to 950 noncitizen detainees, said the Mercury News.
There are also concerns the closed federal Dublin Women’s Prison could be converted into a detention facility, and the Mercury News reports that advocates fear the federal government might either transition the prison directly into an ICE facility or sell it to a private contractor that could operate it under a federal contract.
The news agency warns that “anytime a detention center opens, it’s not good for the community, it’s not good for immigrants,” as new facilities often lead to heightened enforcement efforts.
California’s sanctuary state laws have made it harder for ICE to carry out deportations, writes the Mercury News, citing legislation passed in 2017 prohibits most forms of cooperation between local law enforcement and immigration authorities, presenting a major obstacle for ICE because about “70 percent to 75 percent of ICE arrests in the U.S. have been handoffs from local law enforcement.”
Without local cooperation, ICE must conduct arrests entirely on its own, which significantly reduces its ability to conduct large-scale operations, said the Mercury News, detailing only “27% of arrests nationally were of people living in the community arrested directly by ICE.”
The Mercury News notes that claims about targeting immigrants with criminal convictions are largely unfounded, and there are “very few non-citizens who have criminal convictions in the country,” which undermines the idea that mass deportations would focus primarily on those with criminal records.
While large-scale deportations have not yet occurred, the Mercury News writes the threat alone has already caused fear within immigrant communities, suggesting the danger of increased enforcement could become real if the administration strengthens its infrastructure and ramps up operations.
In the least, the news outlet said the administration’s rhetoric has succeeded in creating “fear, anxiety, [and] trauma” among immigrants, even without widespread enforcement actions.
