EAST LOS ANGELES, California — The captain of the East Los Angeles Sheriff's Station has told residents that his deputies do not work with federal immigration agents, after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were repeatedly seen detaining people right outside the station — at least four people in recent weeks, according to The LA Local, which published its report on Friday, November 13.
The sightings have sparked protests and hard questions from local leaders about the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's relationship with ICE, because county property around the station is supposed to be an “ICE-free” zone where federal agents may not stage immigration operations. At a meeting with residents this week, station captain Jorge Marchena took those questions directly at the Maravilla Community Advisory Committee.
Source: The LA Local
How ICE finds people at the station, in the captain's own explanation
Marchena explained that while California law prohibits local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration enforcement, all federal and local agencies can access fingerprint data through the Department of Justice. “The way that ICE is locating people is through fingerprints,” he said, adding that the systems have worked that way for decades: if a person ICE is looking for is arrested locally — for a DUI, for example — the database shows it.
He also pointed to Los Angeles County's zero-bail policy, known as the Pre-Arraignment Release Protocols (PARP), under which some people are released without paying bail and given a court date within hours of arrest, depending on the offence. Through the database, Marchena said, ICE can see that a person it is seeking is in custody at the East LA station and can wait for that person to be released. The Sheriff's Department, he said, is unaware of who ICE is looking for, because deputies “don't do immigration enforcement,” and an LASD resource guide states that deputies do not ask about immigration status during routine interactions.
What deputies say they cannot do
Marchena said the Sheriff's Department cannot interfere with federal agents' law-enforcement activities, including immigration enforcement, even on county property designated an ICE-free zone. “It's obstruction for us to go out there and try to grab that person and hide them,” he told residents.
The sheriff's station sits inside the East Los Angeles Civic Center, a county campus that also includes Belvedere Park Lake, the East LA Library and other public and government offices. The campus is designated an ICE-free zone, a policy meant to ensure county property is not used as a staging area, processing location or operations base for unauthorized civil immigration enforcement.
Yet the practical gaps are visible on the ground. Marchena said signage designating the location as an ICE-free zone has not yet been installed, and that LASD cannot enforce the policy until the signs are posted, as the ordinance requires. Residents have called the station to report ICE activity, he said, but by the time deputies investigate, the agents are no longer there. During a recent barrio walk at Belvedere Park organised by the social justice group Centro CSO to inform residents of their rights, Gabriel Quiroz noted that deputies had placed yellow tape around the station on another occasion and asked: “Why can't they do that when ICE is here?”
The wider Los Angeles picture, November 6–12
The East LA station is one node in a much larger pattern. LA Public Press, which tracks reported ICE activity across Los Angeles County from rapid-response groups, elected officials and immigrant-rights organisations, estimated at least 32 sightings and 21 arrests by the Department of Homeland Security between November 6 and 12. Its log records an ICE agent recorded outside the East LA Sheriff's Station at 8:16 a.m. on November 7, and at least two DHS vehicles reported outside the station at 7:30 a.m. on November 8. DHS did not respond to the outlet's request on Thursday for the week's arrest numbers.
Source: LA Public Press
Across the county, LA Public Press reported, federal agents have been heavily targeting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services application support centres — the offices where immigrants must appear for fingerprinting and other required appointments. Melissa Shepard, director of legal services at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, told the outlet the administration is “pulling the rug out from under” immigrants who show up to required appointments: miss the appointment and the case is at risk; attend it and detention is possible. She advised speaking with an attorney before attending and making an emergency preparedness plan with loved ones.
Trust is the real casualty, residents say
Marchena acknowledged the fear and distrust that follow when residents see videos of ICE activity outside their own sheriff's station. “We know a lot of people, they're afraid to call us,” he said. Resident Armando Madrid told the meeting that the goodwill the department tries to build “is going out the door” when people perceive ICE standing outside its doors, and urged deputies to think more deeply about how to mitigate ICE's influence around the station. Marchena called it a complex problem, saying deputies are caught in the middle between day-to-day community safety work and maintaining public trust.
Under the county policy described in the reporting, county property such as the East LA Civic Center campus may not be used as a staging area, processing location or operations base for unauthorized civil immigration enforcement. The Sheriff's Department says the policy cannot be enforced at the station until the required signage is posted — and that deputies still cannot obstruct federal agents acting under their own authority.
What happens next
The pressure is not new: on October 27 the Sheriff's Department confirmed ICE had arrested two people at Belvedere Park who had been released from its custody in October, while maintaining it did not notify ICE or coordinate any transfer, and Board Chair Hilda L. Solis — co-author of the ICE Free Zones motion — said she had asked County Counsel to ensure the policy is fully implemented and enforced. The immediate tests now are whether the ICE-free signage is finally posted at the East LA campus, whether the county counsel review produces any enforcement step, and whether agent sightings outside the station continue. Community groups are also organising: the Community Self Defense Coalition holds a meeting and training on November 14 in Koreatown, and residents who see ICE activity can report it to the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network at 1-888-624-4752.
For the Punjabi and other immigrant families who live and work across greater Los Angeles — including truckers who pass through the county daily — the dispute matters beyond one station: it is about whether a routine visit to a police station, a park or a library can feel safe, and whether people will still call for help when they need it. That is the trust Marchena told residents his department is trying, in his words, not to lose.