Attorney General Pam Bondi sent letters to several California sheriffs on Thursday requesting the names “of all inmates in their county jails who are not citizens of the United States, their crimes of arrest or conviction and their scheduled release dates.”
Bondi requested the information within 30 days and said the Department of Justice (DOJ) will pursue “all available means of obtaining” the list of names, including through subpoenas or “other compulsory process.”
“Every illegal alien has broken federal immigration law and violated our Nation’s sovereignty. But those who commit additional crimes on American soil are especially dangerous to our Nation’s safety and security. Deporting them is @POTUS’s highest priority,” Chad Mizelle, DOJ chief of staff wrote, in a Thursday post on the social platform X.
“It’s time for California’s county sheriffs to fulfill their oath of office and keep the citizens of their counties safe and secure,” he added.
In Bondi’s letter, she said sheriffs were “uniquely positioned to assist the federal government with its efforts to identify and remove illegal aliens who committed crimes after entering the United States.”
Mizelle’s post included a letter addressed to Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert G. Luna. His office did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment regarding the matter.
City leaders have pushed back against efforts to ramp up federal immigration enforcement throughout the Golden State.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) signed a July 11 executive order requesting information about when and where enforcement activities have taken place in the city, the identities of individuals and reasons they were arrested or detained.
The city and several surrounding municipalities also formally joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration regarding immigration raids in the area a day prior to the order.
Local immigration advocates have also launched protests following a series of federal raids to combat the president’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
