A GROUP OF PROTESTERS crowded the Marin County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday to demand that the county reject federal assistance grants that require local law enforcement to share data on immigrant detainees with the U.S. Department of Justice.
The State Criminal Alien Assistance Program is administered by the DOJ in conjunction with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Department of Homeland Security. According to the DOJ, SCAAP funds are used to pay states and local governments to cover officer salary costs incurred for jailing immigrants lacking permanent legal status who have at least one felony or two misdemeanor convictions and are incarcerated for a minimum of four consecutive days.
To determine eligibility to receive funds, local law enforcement must provide a detainee’s name, date of birth, country of birth and other personal information with the DOJ.
In 2024, Marin County received $338,136 in SCAAP funding, according to records from the Bureau of Justice Assistance within the DOJ.
Curt Ries with the Marin chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which helped organize the protest, presented the board with a petition containing 2,500 signatures of Marin County residents calling for an end to what he said was the Sheriff’s Office’s cooperation with ICE through SCAAP.
“It has received over $1.2 million from [the federal government] over the last three years for jailing more than a thousand undocumented immigrants from our community,” he said.
County Executive Derek Johnson underlined Marin County’s programs supporting its immigrant residents. He mentioned the appropriation of $500,000 in direct services and legal defenses to programs like the Marin Rapid Response Network, which operates a hotline for people to call to confirm ICE sightings or obtain legal assistance for families impacted by ICE actions.
Most of you have come because your ancestors crossed oceans to be here. So, it breaks my heart when my people, the people of the American continent, are being hunted down and kidnapped.
Raquel, community member
“Last night, your Civilian Oversight Commission met, and this topic did come up,” said Johnson, adding that the newly formed commission is still setting up its bylaws and hiring an inspector general to oversee the Sheriff’s Office. “We recognize that SCAAP may appropriately come before the commission in the future.”
Other counties in California have rejected SCAAP grants. San Francisco has been a non-participant in SCAAP since the early 2020s, reaffirming that position in 2025 as being inconsistent with the city’s sanctuary ordinance due to the sharing of immigrant data.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff Chris Clark announced in August that the county would no longer participate in SCAAP after discovering that the program required providing names, birthplaces and custody details to federal agencies. Clark stated that continuing participation could undermine the county’s sanctuary commitments and public trust.
In 2018, then-Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva cut ties with SCAAP, saying in a statement that it “essentially sold our undocumented inmate database information for federal funds.”
Speakers lined up during public comment at Tuesday’s meeting of the Marin County Board of Supervisors, referencing their immigrant heritage, even those of European descent.
“Most of you have come because your ancestors crossed oceans to be here,” said a Mexican woman named Raquel who presented another 3,000 signatures to the board. “So, it breaks my heart when my people, the people of the American continent, are being hunted down and kidnapped. It breaks my heart to have to tell my children that this is the world that they’re now living in where you can be kidnapped because of the color of your skin. I’ve had to talk to my son about how it’s beautiful to be brown here, because he wants to be white.”
The Marin Rapid Response Network can be reached at (415) 991-4545 or at Multiculturalmarin.org/mrrn.