Dozens of speakers urge Orange County supervisors to end voluntary ICE transfers at Truth Act hearing
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Summary
At an annual Truth Act hearing, community advocates, nonprofit leaders and doctors urged the county to stop voluntary Orange County Sheriff Department transfers to ICE, citing data on hundreds of transfers, deaths in custody, and calls for greater transparency. The board received and filed the report and discussed limits of its authority over the elected sheriff.
At the board’s required annual hearing on the Transparent Review of Unjust Transfers and Holds Act (the Truth Act), more than a dozen community members, advocates and medical professionals urged the Orange County Board of Supervisors on March 10 to end voluntary transfers of people in county custody to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Logan Smith of the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice told the board OCSD continues to transfer people to ICE, most on a voluntary basis rather than pursuant to judicial warrants, and said the practice “poses a risk to public health and safety and community trust.” Norma Palacios of the California Immigrant Policy Center said the sheriff’s department transferred over 200 county residents to ICE in 2025, and called for the county to stop transfers and publish more information about them.
Several speakers described personal and community harm. Dr. Cheryl Long, a longtime Irvine resident and physician, urged the board to direct the sheriff to stop cooperating with ICE, describing inadequate medical care and deaths among people in ICE custody. Sandra Deanda of the Orange County Rapid Response Network said community tracking shows racial disparities in transfers and flagged judicial warrants used to move people out of local custody.
Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento thanked speakers and clarified the hearing’s purpose: the Truth Act requires an annual public forum and the board’s action today was to receive and file information rather than to impose new rules on the sheriff, an independently elected official. Sarmiento and other supervisors expressed concern about conditions in ICE facilities and the consequences of transfers but noted the board’s limited authority to direct a separately elected sheriff.
Chair Chaffee closed the hearing, deeming the report received and filed. Several supervisors asked that transparency and public outreach continue; community advocates suggested legislative and administrative remedies as next steps.
The hearing record and the public comments will remain part of the Truth Act filing. The board did not take any enforcement action at the meeting.