The Trump administration put California on notice Wednesday — warning them to stop “sanctuary” policies allowing criminal illegal immigrants to walk out of jails and back onto the streets.
A letter from ICE to the administration of Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta asked if the Golden State would be complying with immigration detainers — requests to local law enforcement to hold an illegal immigrant if they are about to be released from custody after an arrest or upon completion of a sentence.
“Please confirm whether the State of California plans to honor detainers on these aliens or whether each of these barbarians will someday walk the streets of California again,” the letter, obtained by The Post, said.
California is a sanctuary state, meaning state and local agencies — including police, the DMV, and public schools — are generally prohibited from asking about a person’s immigration status or sharing that information with federal immigration authorities, including ICE, in most circumstances.
“Governor Newsom and his fellow California sanctuary politicians are releasing murderers, pedophiles, and drug traffickers from their jails back into our neighborhoods and putting American lives at risk,” Todd Lyons, director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told The Post.
The agency said the sanctuary policies are forcing federal agents to “go out into the community to make the arrest” because they don’t tell the Trump administration that they are setting loose the illegal immigrants, a DHS spokesperson said.
“All we ask for in a detainer is that, when the criminal finishes his sentence, the states and locals hand him over to us for deportation,” the spokesperson said.
The federal government alleges that at least 4,500 illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds have been released back onto American streets by California.
Tens of thousands of people who entered the country illegally — which it notes is a crime in itself — and later committed additional offenses, including murder, rape, possession of child pornography, armed robbery, and other serious crimes, are currently or have recently been in California custody, the letter stated.
The federal government alleges there are more than 33,000 illegal immigrants with active ICE detainers in California and says it shared case examples with the attorney general to illustrate what it called “where your failures have failed the American people.”
Those examples include a Guatemalan national convicted of first-degree murder and robbery, an Armenian national convicted of voluntary manslaughter and other felonies, and a Mexican national arrested for a sex offender violation, ICE claimed. All three were later taken into ICE custody after detainers were not honored, according to ICE.
“This is more dangerous for ICE, the criminal, and the public,” the DHS spokesperson said.
The Post has reached out to Newsom and Bonta.
This is not the first letter ICE has sent to California.
In September 2025, ICE sent a similar letter to California — as well as New York and Illinois — asking the states to comply with federal immigration law and honor detainers for criminal illegal aliens.
Sacramento did not respond to that letter.
This letter is the most recent flashpoint in ongoing tensions between the state and the Trump‑era federal government, which also include California’s passage of the No Secret Police Act, a law signed by Newsom that bars most law enforcement officers, including federal agents such as ICE, from wearing masks during operations in the state.
The state has also seen increased anti‑ICE protests after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, an incident that sparked demonstrations nationwide and after the fatal off‑duty ICE shooting of Keith Porter Jr. in Los Angeles, all unfolding as Newsom promotes a new book and weighs a potential 2028 presidential run.
