Residents demand transparency and urge Sheriff's Office to cease cooperation with ICE.

Per state law, law enforcement agencies that have provided any access to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement must offer an annual update to the public. The 2025 report from the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office was presented to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Jan. 27. 

Of more than 9,000 people booked in the Monterey County Jail in 2025, 21 people, less than 1 percent of the inmate population, were released from the jail to ICE custody. 

Sheriff Tina Nieto, Undersheriff Keith Boyd, and Corrections Bureau Chief Timothy Lanquist delivered the Truth Act report via Zoom. Lanquist shared that 13 of the individuals released to ICE had criminal convictions, and eight of them had been released to ICE after a preliminary hearing in a criminal case (but had not been convicted). 

In total, ICE submitted 295 requests to the Sheriff's Office for access to jail inmates, including 211 detainer requests (holding individuals for an additional 48 hours). Lanquist said most requests didn’t meet state requirements so were not fulfilled. 

ICE officials also requested interviews with 18 inmates; Lanquist said nine refused, and nine agreed (six of them on the condition that an attorney was present and three without legal counsel). 

Lanquist's written report listed the qualified charges for the 21 individuals, without information on whether the person had been convicted, the specifics of their offense (some are known as "wobblers," meaning they can be prosecuted as misdemeanors or felonies). 

The limited information provided raised questions from supervisors and members of the public who demanded more transparency.

“Sometimes you just list what the charge is. It doesn't give all the details,” Supervisor Luis Alejo said, noting some cases need additional information to know if they were serious or not (false imprisonment and vandalism may not be considered violent charges). Specifically, he pointed a a vandalism release case; Lanquist confirmed this person had prior convictions. 

The board and residents asked Nieto and Lanquist whether participation with ICE was voluntary and whether people received proper counsel, including an understanding of their rights and access to translation services in the case of ICE's requests for interviews. Others questioned why people who had not been convicted of a crime were turned over to ICE. 

Some residents demanded the Sheriff's Office end all cooperation with ICE, with some labeling it a “terrorist organization,” calling attention to the recent events with ICE in Minneapolis including the killing of two legal observers and U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Melissa Finch, retired from a career in law enforcement working as a supervisor for CHP's King City office, said: "What are we doing when we turn individuals over to a law enforcement agency who has shown they are comfortable executing people in front of others without due process?"

“The assumption that the only way to keep the community safe is that we work with a criminal agency that is out there torturing and murdering people—what is ludicrous,” Joanna Tapia said to the board. 

“I think we need a citizens' committee for oversight of the sheriff's office when ICE comes to our community to harass and arrest law-abiding people. If I am with my fellow legal observers exercising my constitutional rights, will the sheriff and our deputies be protecting me and my neighbors, or the ICE agents?” Mibs McCarthy said. 

While ICE's presence in Monterey County has been sporadic, it is changing people’s lives and behaviors. “We have seen a significant increase in calls from community members who are afraid to contact any law enforcement at all because they fear immigration consequences,” said Adriana Melgoza, executive director of the Watsonville Law Center and a leader of the Solidarity Network, a volunteer-led rapid response group of legal observers who monitor immigration enforcement activities in Monterey County.

Nieto responded after the extensive public comments and said, "We hear the fear, the anger and the frustration that’s being expressed here today."