By Darwin BondGraham in the East Bay Express.
Immigrant communities in the East Bay fear that local law enforcement agencies will become more entangled with federal immigration enforcement in the Trump era. But the Alameda County Sheriff already participates in an Obama-era federal program that has resulted in the turnover of hundreds of people to deportation officers over the past several years.
Protesters marched to Sheriff Gregory Ahern’s Oakland offices today calling on him to end cooperation with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.
According to records obtained by the Express, since July 2015, the sheriff’s office notified ICE of the release dates of 339 individuals held in Alameda County’s jails through the Obama-era deportation system known as the Priority Enforcement Program. ICE uses release time information to show up and arrest people when they’re let out of the sheriff’s jail, mainly the Santa Rita facility in Dublin.