Since President Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2025, California has released 4,561 illegal immigrants from its jails and prisons rather than honor ICE detainers — sending convicted killers, child sex offenders, gang members, and drug traffickers back onto the streets. ICE officials disclosed the figure on Friday, alongside a roster of cases that reads less like a law enforcement report and more like a catalog of horrors.
Among those released: a Guatemalan man convicted of first-degree murder, a Mexican national arrested for lewd acts with a child under 14, a Chinese national arrested for sexual penetration with force, and members of notorious street gangs with rap sheets stretching back decades.
Each one had an ICE detainer on file. Each time, California authorities ignored it. The state's sanctuary law made all of it possible.
The individual cases tell a story that no aggregate statistic can capture. Consider just a few reported by Breitbart:
Carmelo Corado Hurtado, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, was convicted of first-degree murder, drunk driving, and second-degree robbery. ICE lodged a detainer. California released him anyway. ICE agents had to track him down in the community and arrest him themselves. He has since been deported.
Hector Grijalba-Sernas, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, was arrested for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years old. ICE lodged a detainer on September 24, 2024. California did not honor it. He walked free. It took until May 8, 2025, for ICE to arrest him and refer him for prosecution. He is currently in federal custody.
Xujin An, an illegal immigrant from China, was arrested for sexual penetration with force and sexual battery in Westminster, California. ICE lodged a detainer on November 9, 2024. It was not honored. He was released. ICE arrested him on April 15, 2025. He remains in custody pending judicial proceedings.
Angel Navarro Camarillo, an illegal immigrant from Mexico and a member of the La Familia street gang, was arrested for a sex offender violation by the Fullerton Police Department on November 29, 2024. ICE lodged a detainer. California released him. ICE arrested him on July 14, 2025, and removed him from the United States.
These are not edge cases cherry-picked from a vast data set to score political points. They are representative of a pattern so consistent that it functions as policy, which, of course, it is.
Vicente Centeno-Lugo, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, carries a criminal record spanning 28 years. His convictions and charges include:
Santa Clara County Jail refused to recognize multiple ICE immigration detainers in recent years and released him repeatedly. Nearly three decades of criminal conduct, and the county's answer each time was to open the door.
Raphael Arturovich Gevorgyan, an illegal immigrant from Armenia and a member of the Armenian Power gang, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, assault with a deadly weapon, tampering with a vehicle, receiving stolen property, and grand theft. On November 11, 2025, Burbank Police arrested him for obstructing police. ICE lodged a detainer. California released him. ICE arrested him one day later — on November 12, 2025. One day. That is how little the sanctuary policy accomplished beyond forcing federal agents to do work the state refused to.
Governor Newsom has not responded. California Attorney General Rob Bonta — the man ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons has directly urged to honor detainers on more than 33,000 illegal immigrants currently in local or state custody — has not responded. No statement. No defense. No explanation for why a convicted killer was released instead of handed over to federal authorities, standing ready to take custody.
The Department of Homeland Security's Tricia McLaughlin did not mince words:
"Governor Newsom and his fellow California sanctuary politicians are releasing murderers, pedophiles, and drug traffickers back into our neighborhoods and putting American lives at risk."
She continued:
"We are calling on Governor Newsom and his administration to stop this dangerous derangement and commit to honoring the ICE arrest detainers of the more than 33,000 criminal illegal aliens in California's custody. It is common sense. Criminal illegal aliens should not be released from jails back onto our streets to terrorize more innocent Americans. If we work together, we can make America safe again. 7 of the 10 safest cities in the U.S. cooperate with ICE law enforcement."
That last line deserves attention. Seven of the ten safest cities in America cooperate with ICE. California's largest jurisdictions do not. The correlation is not subtle.
An ICE detainer is a straightforward mechanism. Federal authorities identify an illegal immigrant in local custody, lodge a formal request to hold the individual briefly so ICE can assume custody, and the transfer happens without incident. It costs the local jurisdiction almost nothing. It requires no additional policing. It simply asks that when you already have a criminal illegal immigrant in handcuffs, you don't let him go.
California treats this as an ideological provocation. The result is that ICE agents must then locate, surveil, and arrest these individuals in the community — a process that is more dangerous for agents, more disruptive for neighborhoods, and more expensive for taxpayers. It is enforcement made harder on purpose.
Some of the released individuals remain unaccounted for. Monica Gonzalez-Riedel, an illegal immigrant from Mexico arrested for willful cruelty to a child and assault with a deadly weapon, had her ICE detainer rejected by the San Diego Sheriff's Office. She was released. There is no indication in ICE's disclosure that she has been re-arrested. Sara Hassanzadeh, an illegal immigrant from Iran arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery on an ex-spouse, was similarly released after the San Diego Sheriff's Office rejected her detainer. Her current status is also unaccounted for.
Two women, arrested for violent crimes, were released over federal objection, potentially still at large. Sacramento treats this as a policy victory.
The 4,561 releases since January are staggering enough. But the forward-looking number is worse: more than 33,000 illegal immigrants currently sit in California's local and state custody with active ICE interest. ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons has urged Attorney General Bonta to honor those detainers. The silence from Bonta's office speaks volumes about what comes next.
Every one of those 33,000 individuals will eventually be released from state custody. When they are, California's sanctuary framework ensures they will walk out without ICE notification, without a handoff, without accountability. Some will have served time for violent felonies. Some will be gang members. Some will reoffend.
And when they do, the victims will not be Sacramento politicians or their families. They will be the people who live in the communities where these individuals are released — overwhelmingly working-class, often Latino, often immigrant communities that came to this country legally and play by the rules.
Victor Hernandez-Jiron, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, was arrested for attempted murder, inflicting corporal injury on a spouse, assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, false imprisonment, and threats to commit a crime resulting in death or great bodily injury. ICE issued a detainer. California did not honor it. He was released. ICE apprehended him on November 17, 2025.
Elvin Joel Centeno Verde, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, was convicted of obstruction of police and arrested multiple times within the past five years for drug trafficking and drug sales. ICE lodged a detainer. California released him. ICE apprehended him on October 27, 2025, and removed him from the United States.
The pattern is mechanical. Arrest. Detainer. Release. Federal re-arrest — if they can find them. The sanctuary policy does not protect immigrant communities. It cycles violent offenders through them.
California's political leadership has decided that cooperation with federal immigration enforcement is a greater evil than releasing convicted killers and child sex offenders into neighborhoods. They have made that calculation explicitly, codified it in law, and defended it through silence when the consequences arrive at someone else's doorstep.
Four thousand five hundred sixty-one times since January, California chose ideology over the person who would become the next victim. The names of those victims will never trend on social media, never generate fundraising emails, never appear in campaign ads. But they exist. And Sacramento knows it.
