Glendale terminates ICE contract amid LA ICE protests

The City of Glendale has announced its decision to end its agreement with U.S. Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to house federal immigration detainees at the Glendale Police Department facility. 

What we know:

According to the city, the decision to terminate the contract was not politically driven, but rather due to the city's values of "public safety, local accountability, and trust." 

"The city has maintained a highly regulated, locally controlled facility since 2007, upholding high standards by providing clean accommodations, on-call medical care, family visitation, and legal counsel to those temporarily held. 

This local access offered detainees due-process proximity, which is often lacking in more remote or privately-operated detention centers," the city said. ]

RELATED COVERAGE: LA ICE protests, Day 4: SoCal braces for another day of unrest over immigration raids

The city said it remains in full compliance with SB-54, which prohibits local law enforcement from using resources for immigration enforcement.

Noting that local law enforcement had not engaged in federal immigration operations, officials said Glendale was consistently ranked as one of the safest cities in the nation and GPD was highly trusted by residents.

"At this time, it is in our best interest to not allow that trust to be undermined,'' a statement read.

Department of Homeland Security releases a statement

The other side:

DHS released the following statement in response on Monday:

"It is deeply disturbing that sanctuary politicians in Glendale, California, would terminate an agreement to hold ICE detainees and violent criminals — which the city has had with DHS for more than 15 years — just as violent rioters are looting and defacing Los Angeles and assaulting federal law enforcement. Glendale’s politicians stand with criminal illegal aliens, including gang members, rapists, and murderers over American citizens. Secretary Noem has a clear message for the LA rioters and sanctuary politicians: You will not stop us or slow us down. ICE will continue to enforce the law."

Big picture view:

Protests took place in the Los Angeles area over the weekend in response to the Trump administration’s intensified immigration crackdown, prompting clashes between demonstrators and police and leading to dozens of arrests.

The recent anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles erupted following widespread anger over the agency's enforcement tactics. Community leaders reported incidents of ICE appearing at elementary school graduations, disrupting the legitimate immigration processes at various courthouses, and aggressively raiding workplaces and locations like Home Depot. These actions, perceived as arbitrary and invasive, sparked outrage among residents and galvanized the public into widespread demonstrations across Los Angeles County.

In response, Trump deployed hundreds of National Guard members to Southern California over the weekend, calling out California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in the process.

"If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs, which everyone knows they can’t, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem," Trump said on Truth Social on Saturday. "[Riots and looters], the way it should be solved."

RELATED COVERAGE: Newsom suing Trump over deployment of National Guard to LA amid immigration raids, protests

Internal government data shows ICE arrests during Trump's second term have already surpassed 100,000 this week, including over 2,000 arrests on both Tuesday and Wednesday. This marks a dramatic increase from the daily average of approximately 660 arrests during the first 100 days of the Trump administration.

These numbers reportedly move closer to the stated goal of top administration officials, such as White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who has pushed for ICE to conduct "a minimum" of 3,000 arrests each day. 

The Source: Information for this story is from the City of Glendale and previous FOX 11 reports.

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