After launching immigration sweeps that sparked weeks of protests in Los Angeles, the Trump administration faulted California policies for protecting those they described as “the worst of the worst,” meaning immigrants convicted of violent crimes.

“Why do Governor Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass care more about violent murderers and sex offenders than they do about protecting their own citizens?” said Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a news release announcing a group of LA detentions.

However, records and a CalMatters analysis show the state had previously coordinated with Immigration and Customs Enforcement attempting to hand over two of the agency’s top targets in LA: Roland E. Veneracion-Enriquez and Cuong Chanh Phan, both of whom had served time in state prisons for violent offenses.

That cooperation undercuts the Trump administration’s characterization of why it launched a massive immigration crackdown in the nation’s second-largest city.

Chanh Phan, who had served time after being convicted of murder, was released directly to ICE in 2022, records show.

As for Veneracion, state prison officials in May told ICE about the prisoner’s upcoming release, but the feds did not pick him up. Instead, the convicted sex offender was released, and ICE trumpeted his arrest in Los Angeles two weeks later.

California’s so-called sanctuary law does not apply to unauthorized immigrants convicted of serious crimes, and state prisons have handed over more than 9,000 people with those backgrounds to ICE since Gov. Gavin Newsom took office in 2019, state data show. The same rules apply to county jails, where sheriffs sometimes complain that ICE fails to pick up people who they believe should be deported in compliance with the sanctuary law.

In those cases, prison or jail employees communicate with federal immigration authorities before someone’s release.

Four others on the “worst of the worst” list had served time in Los Angeles and Orange County jails, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Officials at those jails said they did not know whether sheriff’s deputies had been in communication with ICE about those men prior to their release.

Top Trump officials have repeatedly said they’re targeting “criminal illegal aliens,” but immigrant and civil rights groups allege federal authorities have launched an indiscriminate enforcement blitz that’s mostly netted day laborers and workers from Latino communities who are not threats to public safety.

Between June 6 and June 22, immigration enforcement teams arrested 1,618 immigrants for deportation in Los Angeles and surrounding regions of Southern California, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed to CalMatters last week. During that time, masked agents have arrested car wash employees, farmworkers, U.S. citizens, and people attending their immigration court hearings.

Federal data obtained by the Cato Institute shows 65% of the people booked into ICE detention since October 2024 have no criminal convictions. More than 93% of those booked were never convicted of violent offenses, according to the libertarian research center. Data shows immigrants — including those who are undocumented — commit crimes at much lower rates than U.S.-born citizens do.

Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to emailed questions from CalMatters about the arrests of Veneracion and Chanh Phan.

How ICE detainers work

An ICE detainer — or an “immigration hold” — is a written request between a jail or prison and federal immigration authorities to coordinate the prisoner’s release directly to immigration authorities, typically to start the process for deportation.

ICE holds or detainers are the primary method immigration authorities use to find people for deportation. Immigrant Legal Resource Center, a national nonprofit that provides legal training and does pro-immigrant policy work in California and Texas, estimated in January that 70 to 75% of ICE arrests in the interior of the U.S. were historically handoffs from another law enforcement agency, such as local jails or state or federal prisons.

When a person enters the state prison system, the corrections department is required to identify people who may be subject to deportation within 90 days and send an initial inquiry to ICE. Typically, ICE will respond about whether the person can be deported and, if so, issue a detainer. The detainer means ICE will take custody of the person upon their release.

Shortly before an individual is released, state prison employees again contact ICE and let them know the person’s release date is approaching. ICE then decides whether or not they will pick the person up.

So far in 2025, ICE has picked up 587 people of 11,231 inmates released from the state prison system. They pick up about 87% of the people whom they’ve placed detainers on, state data shows.

Veneracion-Enriquez, 55, was released from a California state prison in May after spending 28 years in prison for rape, according to the California Department of Justice’s sex offender database and the corrections department. The corrections department was ready to hand him over to ICE, but a day before his release, ICE cancelled his detainer, state officials confirmed in response to questions from CalMatters. That month, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation contacted ICE about Veneracion’s pending release, as required by law. Emails show that they notified ICE that Veneracion was going to be released within 15 days.