In 2025, nine people were transferred from Napa County Jail to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, county officials said Tuesday at a rundown for the Board of Supervisors about law enforcement communications with ICE.
All nine were men between the ages of 30 and 70 years old, said A.J. Alarcon, the recently appointed director of Napa County Department of Corrections, speaking to supervisors on Tuesday. Eight of the men hailed from Central America and one man came from Asia.
Alarcon’s presentation was part of Napa’s annual TRUTH Act report, an overview of law enforcement communications with ICE required by California law since 2016.
According to Alarcon, in 2025, NCDC staff received 145 ICE detainer requests — which enable the agency to take custody of an individual on their release. Of those, jail staff gave ICE information for 36 people in custody, giving the agency a few hours’ heads up ahead of their release from jail, a window Alarcon called “drive time.”
But new policies and increased transparency aim to change those numbers, Alarcon said.
“With input from local public interest groups, the board’s ad hoc committee and the grand jury, NCDC amended its policy to remove misdemeanor convictions entirely as a basis for ICE notification,” he told supervisors.
In previous years, someone could be transferred from Napa jail to ICE if there was probable cause they had committed a specific felony or had a prior conviction for a specific felony in the last 15 years or misdemeanor in the last five years.
Now that finding of probable cause has to be upheld by a judge — one more step in the court system — and the window for a past felony conviction is down to 10 years. Misdemeanor convictions are no longer considered.
NCDC made a few other changes following a report from a Napa County Civil Grand Jury in April, including the launch of a live dashboard of ICE detainer requests and custody transfers. The dashboard shows that in 2026, three people have been taken from Napa jail by ICE out of 84 detainer requests — a drop from this time last year.
Community groups call for more protections
In public comment Tuesday, speakers said that lower numbers and policy changes are good — but not enough.
“This administration is deliberately attacking immigrants,” said Madeline Hernandez, the North Bay regional directing attorney from the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area.
Hernandez said the organization’s caseload has more than doubled in the last year.
Hernandez acknowledged NCDC’s policy updates, but pushed the department to go further — more protections for people with pending charges but no convictions and for those who have been convicted of crimes in the past.
This administration is deliberately attacking immigrants.
Madeline Hernandez, Immigration Institute of the Bay Area
Esmeralda Gil, executive director of Puertas Abiertas Community Resource Center, which supports immigrants in Napa County, said even one arrest has a ripple effect on the entire Napa community.
“We see what happens when families are left behind the next morning,” said Gil. “One detention changes the financial stability of an entire household virtually overnight.”
In a phone call on Tuesday, Alarcon said he and the supervisors’ ad hoc committee will continue to work out more changes to policy in the near future.
“It’s all about rehabilitation and working with people,” he said. “That’ll be the direction.”