The Trump Administration on Tuesday, June 10, responded to a Southern California city’s decision to terminate its agreement with the federal government to house federal immigration detainees. The City of Glendale, California, located northeast of Los Angeles, announced it would end its contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Monday, June 9.
“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 destroying Los Angeles and assaulting federal law enforcement,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Straight Arrow News in a statement. “Glendale’s politicians stand with criminal illegal aliens, including gang members, rapists, and murderers over American citizens.”
The City of Glendale said in a news release that the public’s perception of the contract with ICE has become divisive. Glendale officials also said the city’s police department will not enforce immigration law and has not engaged in any immigration enforcement.
“The reason it is being canceled is we became aware this past week of some of the ICE enforcement actions that were taking place in Los Angeles,” Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian told NPR. “There was huge public outcry, mainly concerned about the manner in which people were being detained.”
Glendale ICE agreement
The agreement between the federal government and Glendale had been in place since 2007, despite the California Values Act, which went into effect in 2018. That legislation limits the role local law enforcement can play in federal immigration enforcement. However, any contracts signed before June 2017 were allowed to continue.
Najarian told NPR he does not believe there are currently any detainees in the facility. A city spokesperson told SAN the decision was rooted in core values — public safety, local accountability and community trust — rather than politics. However, the mayor directly refuted that while speaking today.
“Speaking for myself, I think, yes, definitely, it is a political decision,” Najarian told NPR. “And let me go one step further. I think this is a particularly uninformed political decision because much of the pressure we received and threats — you know, come down to the city of Glendale and, you know, let’s shut this down — were not informed of, in my opinion, the true value and humanitarian aspect that the Glendale jail provided.”
Glendale typically ranks among the safest cities in the country. In 2024, a study by PropertyClub ranked Glendale the 11th safest city in the country.
Ongoing protests
The decision comes as protests continue around the greater Los Angeles area over an ICE raid last Friday, where federal agents took over 40 immigrants into custody.
In the days since, President Donald Trump sent in National Guard troops to quell instances of violence, despite acts of violence being limited before that deployment. Trump later sent Marines to guard federal properties.
“If we didn’t have the military in there, the National Guard, and then we also sent in some Marines… we had some bad people,” Trump said on Tuesday from the Oval Office. “We ended it, and we have in custody some very bad people.”
The president said he spoke with California Gov. Gavin Newsom yesterday, but Newsom maintained the call never happened.
Meanwhile, Newsom on Tuesday filed an emergency motion to block the president’s deployment of Marines and the National Guard in Los Angeles.
The Pentagon estimated that the deployment will cost about $134 million. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the decision, saying they are needed to protect federal agents doing their jobs.
