Trump’s DOJ Beat California Sanctuary Cities At Their Own Game … Using Warrants

Not even Sanctuary City status will let you ignore this one.

Bill Melugin of FOX News reports and explains:

EXCLUSIVE: We witnessed an incredibly rare sight in the sanctuary city of Los Angeles, as Twin Towers jail transferred an illegal alien inmate to ICE custody, not because sanctuary policies have changed, but because the jail is being *forced* to cooperate w/ ICE as part of a new… pic.twitter.com/j7DhevmVwr

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) May 19, 2025

Here is the transcript:

“EXCLUSIVE: We witnessed an incredibly rare sight in the sanctuary city of Los Angeles, as Twin Towers jail transferred an illegal alien inmate to ICE custody, not because sanctuary policies have changed, but because the jail is being *forced* to cooperate w/ ICE as part of a new federal operation designed to “neutralize” California’s sanctuary state law.

“The new Trump-appointed US Attorney in Los Angeles, @USAttyEssayli, launched “Operation Guardian Angel” last week, and it’s already forcing sanctuary jails to make transfers to ICE.

“How does it work?

“Essayli has organized a federal task force made up of ICE, FBI, HSI, DEA, and ATF, working out of an office in downtown LA. Every single day, they are now scanning criminal databases w/ fingerprints and identifying illegal aliens in jails throughout Southern California who have been previously deported from the United States.

“If they’ve come back to the US after a deportation, they’ve committed a federal felony under 8 USC 1326 known as “illegal re-entry”.

“As soon as the task force ID’s an alien booked into a local jail who has a previous deportation, they seek a federal criminal warrant on them for felony re-entry, signed off on by a federal judge.

“Unlike an administrative ICE warrant or ICE detainer request, these criminal judicial warrants for 8 USC 1326 *CANNOT* be ignored by sanctuary jurisdictions, and California’s sanctuary state law cannot shield aliens from these criminal warrants. Instead of releasing the alien inmates and ignoring ICE detainers, jails must hand the aliens over to the Feds, regardless of sanctuary policy.

“‘With this operation, we’re going to be neutralizing California sanctuary state policies,’ Essayli told me. ‘We’re going to flood the system with warrants for criminal illegal immigrants who are in county jails, they can ignore a detainer, but they cannot ignore a criminal arrest warrant. They have no choice, they will comply, and if they don’t, if they interfere with our ability to arrest a federal felon, they can expect to face consequences for that.’

“@FoxNews was granted exclusive access to the task force as they scanned databases and found a previously deported Mexican alien in jail in downtown LA who had just been arrested for robbery in the city of El Monte. They filed a warrant, and we joined them at LA County’s Twin Towers jail as the sanctuary jurisdiction handed the alien inmate over to the task force – potentially one of the first on camera transfers to ICE since California’s sanctuary state law took effect in 2017.

“The task force says once they’re at full steam, they project they will be arresting 40-50 aliens from local jails every week, and that if it’s successful in LA, US Attorneys can use it as a model to neutralize sanctuary jurisdictions in other parts of the country.