ICE arrests 78 criminal illegal aliens in operation targeting California’s sanctuary policies

September 26, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

Operation Guardian Angel, a program that seeks to neutralize California’s sanctuary state policy and protect Americans from criminal illegal aliens, has led to 78 arrests since it was launched in May.

In an attempt to “neutralize California’s sanctuary state policy” which bans law enforcement from complying with detainers, federal prosecutors now file arrest warrants instead of detainers. Since May, federal prosecutors have secured 171 arrest warrants for the Central District of California.

As a result, officers have arrested 73 criminal illegal aliens at local jails. Law enforcement has also arrested five criminal illegal aliens at county courthouses for a total of 78 arrests.

Since the first of the year, 11 inmates at San Luis Obispo County Jail were arrested on federal warrants, while five additional warrants are awaiting outcomes of local charges, according to SLO County Sheriff Ian Parkinson. At least two criminal illegal aliens have been arrested outside the courthouse in San Luis Obispo.

The Central District of California – comprised of the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura – is home to an estimated 1.5 million illegal aliens. This population includes “gang members and other dangerous felons,” according to acting U.S. Attorney Bilal A. Essayli.

“This program’s initial results show that my office no longer stands idly by while criminal illegal aliens are released from city and county jails and onto our streets,” Essayli said. “California’s misguided sanctuary state laws and policies only protect criminal illegal aliens, which can no longer be tolerated.”

Prosecutors point at several  “tragic results” of California’s sanctuary policy including one case in SLO County.

In February, José Cristian Saravia-Sánchez, 30, of Mexico, shot and killed an Inglewood man who tried to stop him from stealing a catalytic converter. Even though he was an illegal alien who had been convicted of vehicle theft, was removed from the United States in 2013, and had been arrested 11 times between June 2022 and Aug. 2024, local law enforcement was prevented by state law from complying with an immigration detainer request.

On May 10, a 6-year-old boy died after his father, Briant Reyes Estrada, 27, an illegal alien from Mexico, left him in car parked at the Paso Robles Inn while he worked. At the time of his death, the child had bruises on his face and chest not related to the incident that took his life.

Estrada had been arrested two weeks earlier on unrelated state charges but was released from SLO County Jail and not turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement because of California’s sanctuary law.

The SLO County District Attorney’s Office has charged Estrada with murder and willful harm to a child. Estrada is also facing federal criminal charges of visa fraud.