CA Supremes Refuse to Block Transfers to ICE

By a 6-1 vote last Wednesday, the California Supreme Court denied a request to block the transfer of criminal aliens from prisons and county jails to ICE detention facilities.  Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times reports that the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice and the American Immigration Lawyers Association had sued Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Xavier Becerra for refusing to halt the transfer of aliens to the centers, which they called “virulent incubators of the virus” although they had argued that the state had a “clear and mandatory duty” to do so.   The court held that the plaintiffs needed to file their petition to block the transfers in county courts, and that it may review the lower court orders “if circumstances warrant.”

While California is a sanctuary state, jails and prisons can transfer inmates to ICE facilities before their release dates and roughly 4,000 criminal aliens are currently being held in California’s five ICE facilities.  In its denial, the court noted that the petitioners failed to prove that the Governor and AG  had a duty to halt the transfers.  In a lengthy dissent, Associate Justice Goodwin Liu wrote, “I fear that today’s order will unnecessarily delay resolution of the issues with potentially dire consequences for inmates, corrections staff, the health care system and our state as a whole.”   Amicus letters supporting the petitioners were filed on behalf of 92 organizations, including Human Rights Watch, California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, and the California Public Defenders Association.