San Francisco and San Diego, two of California’s prominent sanctuary cities, are currently under federal scrutiny for allegedly hindering ICE operations and allowing criminal immigrants to remain at large, as reported by The California Post.
On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee dispatched four significant letters demanding documentation from the police and sheriff’s departments of these cities. This move comes as President Trump’s administration intensifies its efforts against sanctuary cities, which are predominantly aligned with Democratic policies.
San Francisco, a famously progressive city in the Bay Area, might face the most intense examination. The city has been central to the sanctuary city debate ever since it enacted a protective ordinance back in 1989.
In a communication addressed to San Francisco Police Chief Derrick Lew, Representatives Jim Jordan from Ohio and Tom McClintock from California criticized the city’s law enforcement for not informing federal immigration authorities about “criminal aliens” under detainment, demanding records dating back to early 2024.
“In effect, San Francisco’s policies supporting undocumented immigrants result in dangerous offenders being released from or never taken into SFPD custody, allowing them to commit further crimes,” wrote the legislators.
The correspondence to Sheriff Paul Miyamoto was even more direct, accusing him of upholding the city’s sanctuary policies despite being aware of their potential dangers.
The committee cited Miyamoto’s past statement that “out of thousands of requests for detention” from ICE, his office had “only honored one.”
The letter even went so far as to accuse Miyamoto’s office of blocking the feds from interviewing David DePape, a Canadian national who bludgeoned then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in a October 2022 hammer attack at the couple’s home.
“Despite your claim that California’s and San Francisco’s pro-illegal alien laws ‘were created to uphold justice, not to shield those who threaten public safety,’ sanctuary policies endanger the communities you serve,” lawmakers wrote.
The letter to Miyamoto demanded all policies on the sheriff’s offices interactions with ICE, all policies and communications on non-US citizens, and any info on ICE detainer requests and arrests going back to 2020.
Both the police chief and sheriff in San Francisco were told to include any immigration-related correspondence with the office of Mayor Daniel Lurie, who had a call in late 2025 with Trump that led the president to call off deploying National Guard troops to the Bay Area, just months after troops were deployed to Los Angeles.
Lurie has steadfastly avoided saying Trump’s name in public remarks to avoid provoking the president’s wrath.
The committee also sent letters to San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl and San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez, putting new pressure on California’s second largest city, which also has deep ties to immigrant communities and a long history of limiting local involvement in federal immigration enforcement.
About one-quarter of San Diego residents are foreign-born, according to census data, and the city sits just miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.
The letter to Wahl cited San Diego Police Department policy saying officers are “not allowed to ask about immigration status, participate in immigration enforcement[,] or assist with immigration arrests.”
The lawmakers also pointed to the San Diego City Council’s unanimous passage in April of the Due Process and Safety Ordinance, which requires a judicial warrant before federal immigration agents can access non-public city property.
The letter to Martinez cited a late-2024 San Diego County ordinance that sought to prohibit county law enforcement from helping ICE with deportations. Martinez previously said her office would follow state law and that county supervisors “do not set policy for the Sheriff’s Office.”
The committee also highlighted several cases cited by ICE, including the death 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 national who immigration officials said had previously been removed from the country.
Martinez’s office rejected the ICE detainer request, lawmakers wrote.
The letter also noted that detainers were rejected for an undocumented immigrant arrested for “willful cruelty to [a] child and assault with deadly weapon using force causing possible great bodily injury,” as well as another individual arrested for “aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery on an ex-spouse.”
In just one year, California reportedly refused to honor detainers that “resulted in the release of 4,561 criminal illegal aliens,” with alleged crimes ranging from homicide and robbery to assault.
The California letters are part of a broader Republican offensive against sanctuary cities during Trump’s second term. The committee recently sent similar demands to officials in New York City, Boston, Chicago, Colorado, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Arlington County, Virginia.
The committee demanded documents and communications about each agency’s interactions with ICE, policies involving non-U.S. citizens, the number of ICE detainers received and declined, and communications with local officials about immigration enforcement.
The agencies were given until June 16 to respond.
