Watchdog group wants L.A. County Sheriff’s Department to stop giving ICE access to jails

Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission Chair Patricia Giggans, left, executive director Brian Williams, Vice Chair Priscilla Ocen and commissioner Casimiro Tolentino at a meeting of the panel on Thursday. Members of a watchdog group signaled on Thursday they want the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to take more powerful steps to distance itself from the work of federal immigration enforcement agents. A series of preliminary recommendations by the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission called for the department to bar jail access to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and stop honoring ICE’s requests to detain inmates, except when required by law. “When the 18,000 men and women from the Sheriff’s Department come into work, the people should know that they’re working for them only, and not for Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” said commissioner Hernán Vera, a business litigator, who added he was speaking for himself and not the group. The debate over the Sheriff’s Department’s relationship to ICE has been a feature in the still-undecided sheriff’s election, with McDonnell’s challenger, Alex Villanueva, garnering support for promising to kick immigration agents out of the jails.