San Francisco and San Diego, two of California’s largest sanctuary cities, are below federal investigation for the alleged actions of native officers who stonewalled ICE and let prison migrants stroll free, The California Publish has discovered.
4 bombshell letters — despatched out Tuesday by the Home Judiciary Committee — demanded data from police and sheriff’s departments in San Francisco and San Diego as President Trump’s second administration escalates its crackdown on deep-blue sanctuary cities.
The harshest highlight may fall on San Francisco, the famously liberal Bay Space metropolis that has been on the middle of the nationwide sanctuary metropolis combat for many years after adopting a refuge ordinance in 1989.
In a letter to San Francisco Police Chief Chief Derrick Lew, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Tom McClintock (R-CA) accused San Francisco regulation enforcement of failing to inform federal immigration officers of detainers involving “prison aliens,” and so they demanded data going again to the start of 2024.
“In observe, San Francisco’s pro-illegal alien insurance policies guarantee harmful criminals are launched from SFPD’s custody — or by no means apprehended by SFPD in any respect — and are free to reoffend,” the lawmakers wrote.
The letter to Miyamoto was much more pointed, accusing San Francisco’s sheriff of defending the town’s sanctuary insurance policies “even when confronted by the harmful results” of them.
The committee cited Miyamoto’s previous assertion that “out of hundreds of requests for detention” from ICE, his workplace had “solely honored one.”
The letter even went as far as to accuse Miyamoto’s workplace of blocking the feds from interviewing David DePape, a Canadian nationwide who bludgeoned then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in a October 2022 hammer assault on the couple’s dwelling.
“Regardless of your declare that California’s and San Francisco’s pro-illegal alien legal guidelines ‘have been created to uphold justice, to not defend those that threaten public security,’ sanctuary insurance policies endanger the communities you serve,” lawmakers wrote.
The letter to Miyamoto demanded all insurance policies on the sheriff’s workplaces interactions with ICE, all insurance policies and communications on non-US residents, and any data on ICE detainer requests and arrests going again to 2020.
Each the police chief and sheriff in San Francisco have been advised to incorporate any immigration-related correspondence with the workplace of Mayor Daniel Lurie, who had a name in late 2025 with Trump that led the president to name off deploying Nationwide Guard troops to the Bay Space, simply months after troops have been deployed to Los Angeles.
Lurie has steadfastly prevented saying Trump’s identify in public remarks to keep away from frightening the president’s wrath.
The committee additionally despatched letters to San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl and San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez, placing new strain on California’s second largest metropolis, which additionally has deep ties to immigrant communities and a protracted historical past of limiting native involvement in federal immigration enforcement.
About one-quarter of San Diego residents are foreign-born, based on census information, and the town sits simply miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.
The letter to Wahl cited San Diego Police Division coverage saying officers are “not allowed to ask about immigration standing, take part in immigration enforcement[,] or help with immigration arrests.”
The lawmakers additionally pointed to the San Diego Metropolis Council’s unanimous passage in April of the Due Course of and Security Ordinance, which requires a judicial warrant earlier than federal immigration brokers can entry private metropolis property.
The letter to Martinez cited a late-2024 San Diego County ordinance that sought to ban county regulation enforcement from serving to ICE with deportations. Martinez beforehand mentioned her workplace would comply with state regulation and that county supervisors “don’t set coverage for the Sheriff’s Workplace.”
The committee additionally highlighted a number of circumstances cited by ICE, together with the dying of 11-year-old Aiden Antonio Torres De Paz, who was chasing a soccer ball when he was struck and killed in November 2025 by a Mexican nationwide who immigration officers mentioned had beforehand been faraway from the nation.
Martinez’s workplace rejected the ICE detainer request, lawmakers wrote.
The letter additionally famous that detainers have been rejected for an undocumented immigrant arrested for “willful cruelty to [a] baby and assault with lethal weapon utilizing drive inflicting attainable nice bodily damage,” in addition to one other particular person arrested for “aggravated assault with a lethal weapon and battery on an ex-spouse.”
In only one 12 months, California reportedly refused to honor detainers that “resulted within the launch of 4,561 prison unlawful aliens,” with alleged crimes starting from murder and theft to assault.
The California letters are a part of a broader Republican offensive towards sanctuary cities throughout Trump’s second time period. The committee lately despatched related calls for to officers in New York Metropolis, Boston, Chicago, Colorado, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Arlington County, Virginia.
The committee demanded paperwork and communications about every company’s interactions with ICE, insurance policies involving non-U.S. residents, the variety of ICE detainers acquired and declined, and communications with native officers about immigration enforcement.
The businesses got till June 16 to reply.
