There's still a lot left to be done about cleaning up the awful mess the Biden administration left behind after it threw the borders open and let millions of people into the country with no regard for our immigration laws. But progress is being made; perhaps not as fast as we'd like, but progress all the same.
Here's another positive step in that right direction: On Wednesday, the Department of Justice sent out a press release titled, California Jails Forced to Transfer Hundreds of Criminal Illegal Aliens into Federal Custody One Year into Operation Guardian Angel. In this operation, California jails handed over at least 362 illegal immigrants who were languishing in that state system.
This was intended to slam the door on California's "sanctuary state" laws, and it's doing that.
Since its launch last year, Operation Guardian Angel, a program that seeks to neutralize California’s sanctuary state policy, has resulted in 362 arrests of criminal illegal aliens from county jails into federal custody in the Los Angeles area, the Inland Empire, and the Central Coast.
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, including gang members and other dangerous felons.
Operation Guardian Angel’s goal is to apprehend criminal illegal aliens incarcerated in county jails, whose cooperation is prohibited by “sanctuary state” laws from cooperating with federal immigration officials. SB 54, also known as the California Values Act, signed into law in 2017, limits state and local police cooperation with federal immigration officers and restricts local resources from being used to remove illegal aliens – including violent felons.
California's sanctuary state status was intended to prevent state and local law enforcement from aiding ICE in catching these people, but they can't ignore a federal arrest warrant.
Operation Guardian Angel works by securing federal arrest warrants for aliens recently arrested by local law enforcement. Once issued, local jails are legally required to honor the arrest warrants and must hand over the criminal illegal alien in their custody to the federal government.
The operation began in May 2025 and has resulted in 769 arrest warrants issued, and the actual transfer of 362 defendants – 347 of whom are federally charged with illegally re-entering the United States following removal, or another federal offense. Other federal charges include unlawful possession of a firearm by an alien, unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, using a firearm in drug trafficking or a crime of violence, and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.
A few of the people handed over include:
- Héctor Bueno-Moreno, an illegal alien from Mexico, who has on his record a 1995 rape conviction.
- Ricardo López Jaramillo, an illegal alien and gang member from Mexico, with multiple felony robbery convictions.
- Alejandro Lima Ramírez, an illegal alien from Mexico with convictions for drug trafficking, domestic violence, robbery and theft.
- Andrés Velásquez Ocampo, an illegal alien from Mexico with convictions for carjacking and hit-and-run.
These are the people who California is trying to protect with its "sanctuary" policies. These policies and laws put the American people at risk. There's no other way to describe it. These policies and laws show a callous, deliberate disregard for the honest citizens of the United States.
362 is a good start. In time, we would rather see every one of the estimated 1.5 million illegal aliens in the Central District of California (and everywhere else) sent back to where they belong. Yes, they say that the longest journey begins with a single step, but boy, howdy, if there was ever a time to start to sprint, this is it.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left's lies, new legislation wasn't needed to secure our border, just a new president.
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