On December 10, 2024, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted to stop county agencies from helping federal immigration agents unless those agents have an arrest warrant signed by a judge.

That's the whole policy. Not "don't cooperate with law enforcement." Not "shield criminals." Get a warrant from a judicial official, and the county cooperates. The measure closed what county staff described as a loophole in state law that had let local law enforcement hand people to ICE in certain circumstances anyway. It made San Diego the ninth county in California to adopt that kind of restriction.

Jim Desmond was the only supervisor who voted no.

He didn't let it go

Three months later, in March 2025, Desmond brought a motion to repeal the policy outright.

It failed. He and Supervisor Joel Anderson voted yes; Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe voted no; Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer abstained. Two votes wasn't enough — the motion needed three.

Desmond's reaction:

"This was deeply disappointing... This was not about politics. This was about ensuring that criminals — child abusers, burglars and violent offenders — are removed from our communities. Instead, fear and misinformation won the day, leaving law-abiding residents at greater risk."

He called the county's policy "a reckless measure that actively shields illegal immigrant criminals from deportation, even after committing horrific crimes."

He also built a page on his official supervisor site around it — "Stop San Diego's Super Sanctuary County".

What he's describing isn't what the policy says

Here's the gap between the rhetoric and the rule.

The policy doesn't shield anyone from deportation. It requires a judge's warrant before the county participates. That is the same standard the Fourth Amendment applies to the rest of us. If ICE has probable cause on a violent offender, a judge signs the warrant and the transfer happens.

And this is where Desmond's own words undercut him. Before the March 2025 vote, he explained what he wanted:

"This is for the people in jail that have been tried, convicted, and sentenced and we let ICE know they're here. This is not about mass deportations or sweeps or anything like that."

But that's not what he was voting to restore. A policy that says the county cooperates without a judge's warrant does not limit itself to people who have been "tried, convicted, and sentenced." It applies to whoever ICE asks about. He described a narrow thing and voted for a broad one.

Meanwhile, the Sheriff's Department said it would continue sharing release dates with ICE for people convicted of specific crimes including sexual abuse, child abuse, assault, and drug offenses. The scenario Desmond said he was protecting against was already covered.

The force he wanted to hand a county to

This matters more now than it did in 2024, because of what ICE has become since.

National security officials told ProPublica that federal immigration enforcement has become "an unfettered and unaccountable national police force." The same outlet documented that ICE has held more than 170 U.S. citizens against their will.

That is the agency Desmond wanted San Diego County's staff, jails, and records feeding without a judge in the loop. It wasn't a technical fix. It was a decision about whether a person's contact with any county agency could turn into a deportation.

Monica Montgomery Steppe put the local-government objection plainly:

"I really don't think it's in our best interest to continue to invest in even higher levels for our local law enforcement to do the federal government's job."

That's the fiscal argument, and it's a real one. Federal immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility with a federal budget. Every hour a county deputy spends on it is an hour San Diego taxpayers pay for a job Washington is already funded to do.

He's asking for a promotion

Desmond is termed out as supervisor. He is now the Republican nominee for California's 48th Congressional District — an open seat after Rep. Darrell Issa's retirement — facing Democratic San Diego Councilmember Marni von Wilpert in November.

In Congress he wouldn't be voting on one county's cooperation policy. He'd be voting on ICE's budget, its oversight, and whether there's any check on it at all. We've written about what the Senate did with that power: $70 billion for ICE with no reforms attached — no oversight requirements, no transparency requirements, no accountability of any kind.

Desmond's record tells you which way he'd go. He was the single vote in San Diego County for fewer limits on ICE, and when he lost, he brought it back for another try.

A judge's signature is not a loophole. It's the whole point. Jim Desmond spent two years trying to remove it. We deserve better.

Sources

• Supervisors vote to block San Diego County agencies from helping ICE deliver on mass deportations — Katie Hyson, KPBS, December 10, 2024. Photo: KPBS.
• Proposed repeal of county policy limiting local help with federal immigration fails — City News Service via KPBS, March 11, 2025