Immigration detainers often issued by California center

After many police and sheriff's agencies refused to honor federal requests to hold immigrants in jail citing concerns about community relations and lawsuits, immigration agents had to work speedily to take them into custody.

Several hundred cities and counties have adopted policies in recent years limiting or prohibiting cooperation with immigration agents, citing concerns about eroding ties with immigrant communities and fear of lawsuits after a federal judge ruled that detaining inmates solely based on ICE requests was unconstitutional.

[...] immigration authorities have also narrowed their focus to people convicted of more serious crimes, and the number of so-called detainer requests — which aim to have jails hold inmates up to 48 hours for deportation officers to pick them up — dropped by 24 percent in the 2014 fiscal year from a year earlier.

Immigration authorities had begun issuing detainers based on electronic data after getting access to fingerprints from jail bookings under enhanced law enforcement information-sharing after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Border enforcement advocates say too many convicted criminals are still going free, and immigrant supporters say the new approach continues to encourage racial profiling since police know when they arrest an immigrant, even on a minor charge, deportation officers can find them.