Orange County Jails to Receive Hundreds of Immigrant Detainees

Detained immigrants ranging in the hundreds are being transferred to Orange County jails under an agreement with the federal government. The deal will bring $30 million a year to the struggling Sheriff’s Department.

About 800 immigration detainees will be held at the Theo Lucy Facility in Orange County and the James A. Musick Facility near Irvine by mid-October. Those awaiting deportation hearings were the first to be transferred starting on August 9th.

Local politicians fought the decision to transfer the detainees to their jails at first, but have changed their minds as the $30 million will help with a projected $65 million shortfall in the Sheriff Department’s budget for next year.

In the end, the county Board of Supervisors approved a plan in July to rent 838 jail beds to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.