Orange County Will Make $30 Million From Deal With Feds

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department will work with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) in allowing immigration detainees to be housed in Orange County jails. An agreement was approved by Orange County supervisors to have detainees stay at the James A. Musick Facility in Irvine and the Theo Lacey Facility in Orange. The availability of beds stem from an early release of inmates based on a new law that allows early release for qualified inmates. ICE would use the facilities to house detainees that have completed their sentences and are awaiting immigration status results. The contract allows for the jails to take in more then 800 ICE detainees. While the money generated by this deal would be worth more than $30 million and save Orange County Sheriff jobs, the City of Orange is against the contract because they fear a large increase in the number of inmates at the Theo Lacy facility will exceed the 2800 cap required by the City. The Sheriff of Orange County, Sheriff Hutchens denies that will be a problem.