ICE still playing role in LA jails despite sheriff kicking agents out

LOS ANGELES - A jailer at a Los Angeles County lockup walked into a cell on a recent Monday morning and removed an inmate wanted by federal immigration agents.

Dressed in a hunter green uniform with a gold sheriff's star on his sleeve, Rodolfo Cabrera served the man with a Homeland Security Department form that requested he be transferred to agents upon his release because he was suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who promised during his 2018 campaign to end the "pipeline to deportation," has removed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from the largest local jail system in the nation and limited the criteria that allows inmates to be transferred to federal custody for possible detention or deportation.

But some immigrant rights groups call Villanueva's moves a "bait and switch," because inmates are still being delivered to ICE through officers who are contracted by the federal agency.

The reality inside the jails is a complex tango