Crime & Safety

Sheriff Removes Immigration Officers From North County Stations

Several U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had desks in the stations. San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore told U-T San Diego he ordered them to leave in March.

Federal immigration officers stationed in some North County sheriff’s offices were removed in March, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore informed U-T San Diego.

During the past year, Gore said that several U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had desks in the stations because they were working with various task forces targeting crime such as gang and drug activity.

Gore insisted that the agents’ recent presence wasn’t connected to a joint program targeting undocumented immigrants that ICE propsed to local law enforcement agencies four years ago. Only the Escondido Police Department agreed, and the program has since been criticized by immigrant rights activists.

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Still, he said he ordered the agents to leave after he discovered they had desks because he did not want Latinos in San Diego County to perceive sheriff’s officers as immigration officers.


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