If you or someone you know is booked into a California jail or state prison and Immigration and Customs Enforcement gets involved, state law tightly limits what local officers can do. ICE holds in California cannot be honored by local agencies: a jail cannot keep you past your scheduled release just because ICE asked. Release-date notifications and direct transfers to ICE are allowed only in narrow circumstances tied to specific criminal convictions, and even then the agency has discretion to refuse. You also have the right to written notice of any ICE request and the right to refuse an ICE interview.
Three statutes create this framework: the California Values Act (SB 54), the TRUST Act, and the TRUTH Act. Each answers a different piece of the question.
What Local Police and Jails Cannot Do
The Values Act, at Government Code sections 7284 through 7284.12, forbids California law enforcement agencies from spending money or staff time on immigration enforcement. In concrete terms, officers and jails cannot:
- Ask about your citizenship or immigration status.
- Detain you past your scheduled release date because ICE filed a hold request.
- Share your home address, work address, or other personal information with ICE unless that information is already public.
- Arrest you, or help arrest you, on a civil immigration warrant from ICE.
- Perform immigration enforcement functions themselves, formally or informally.
- Give ICE dedicated office space inside their facilities.
- Contract with the federal government to house civil immigration detainees, except in limited circumstances.
The statute also bars agencies from placing officers under federal supervision for immigration purposes and from using ICE agents as interpreters when interacting with people in custody.1California Legislative Information. California Government Code 7284.6
When a California Agency Can Cooperate With ICE
Two forms of cooperation are permitted but never required: sharing your release date in response to an ICE notification request, and physically transferring you to ICE custody. Both are limited by the TRUST Act, at Government Code section 7282.5, which sets out the qualifying convictions.
An agency has discretion to respond to an ICE notification or transfer request only if you fall into one of these categories:
- A serious or violent felony conviction under Penal Code section 1192.7(c) or section 667.5(c).
- Any felony punishable by imprisonment in state prison.
- A wobbler misdemeanor conviction within the past five years, or a felony conviction within the past fifteen years, for specified offenses including assault, battery, threats, sexual offenses, child abuse, burglary, robbery, felony DUI, weapons offenses, and drug trafficking, among others.
- Current registration on California’s Sex and Arson Registry.
- A federal aggravated felony conviction under immigration law, or an outstanding federal felony arrest warrant.
A separate provision allows release-date sharing when you have been arrested on a serious or violent felony charge, or a state prison felony charge, and a magistrate has already made a probable cause finding on that charge, even before conviction.2California Legislative Information. California Government Code 7282.5
One category is expressly excluded: misdemeanors that were previously felonies or wobblers before Proposition 47 passed in 2014. The reclassified offenses cannot be used as a basis for ICE cooperation.2California Legislative Information. California Government Code 7282.5
If none of the TRUST Act categories fits, an agency has no lawful basis to notify ICE of your release or turn you over.
The Three ICE Request Forms
ICE contacts California jails and prisons using three standard forms, each defined at Government Code section 7283:
- Hold request (Form I-247D). ICE asks the jail to keep you past your release date so agents can pick you up. California law prohibits honoring this request.
- Notification request (Form I-247N). ICE asks the jail to provide advance notice of when you will be released. This can be shared only if you meet the TRUST Act criteria, and the agency is not required to share it even then.
- Transfer request (Form I-247X). ICE asks the jail to hand you directly to ICE custody. Allowed only under the same TRUST Act criteria, or when ICE presents a judicial warrant or judicial probable cause determination.
These forms are the main channel through which ICE interacts with local custody in California.3California Legislative Information. California Government Code 7283
Your Rights If ICE Contacts the Jail
The TRUTH Act, at Government Code section 7283.1, gives you two rights that many people in custody never hear about: the right to refuse an ICE interview, and the right to be told when ICE has made a request about you.
You Can Refuse an ICE Interview
Before any ICE interview about civil immigration matters, the local agency must give you a written consent form. The form has to explain that the interview is voluntary, that you may refuse, and that you may have an attorney present. It must be available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Korean, along with any additional languages that meet the county’s threshold under the Health and Safety Code when certified translations are provided at no cost to the agency.4California Legislative Information. California Government Code 7283.1
You have three options on the form: refuse the interview entirely, agree only with an attorney present, or agree without an attorney. Nothing forces you into an ICE interview, and anything you say can be used against you in immigration proceedings.
You Must Be Told About ICE Requests
When the jail or prison receives any ICE hold, notification, or transfer request, it must give you a copy of that request and tell you whether it plans to comply. If the agency does share your release date with ICE, it must promptly give the same written notice to you and to your attorney, or to one other person you designate.4California Legislative Information. California Government Code 7283.1
That notice is what lets you act. Once you know ICE has been given a release date, you or your family can retain an immigration attorney, arrange representation, and prepare for possible ICE contact at the moment of release.
If the Rules Are Broken
These laws create enforceable rights. If a jail holds you past your scheduled release date to wait for ICE without a judicial warrant, fails to give you the consent form before an ICE interview, or fails to notify you that ICE asked for your release date, those are violations worth raising with an immigration attorney. Document what happened, when, and who was involved. Keep any paperwork the jail gave you, and note anything it should have given you but did not.
The California Attorney General has authority under the Values Act to investigate local agencies suspected of violating these rules. Individuals whose rights were violated may also have civil claims.
Federal Pressure and What It Changes
The federal government has continued to push against California’s framework. A 2025 executive order directed federal officials to list “sanctuary jurisdictions” and pursue funding cuts and litigation against them.5The White House. Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens For now, California agencies operate under state law unless a court orders otherwise. The rules above are the rules that apply to your case today.