Officials with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station and the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department have denied any coordination with federal agents after photos circulated online of immigration officers working out of the station’s parking lot Thursday morning.
“This morning, the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station became aware of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the public parking lot in front of our station. ICE agents took two individuals into custody following their release from station custody,” according to a social media post from the station at 11:47 a.m. Thursday.
A pair of public affairs officers from the Los Angeles office for Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to a request for comment Thursday regarding the arrests.
The activity, which occurred in the SCV Sheriff’s Station parking lot on Golden Valley Road at 7 a.m., continued until 9:30 a.m., according to text messages Thursday from Shirley Miller, a spokeswoman for the station.
“We were not aware until 9:40 a.m.,” Miller wrote, adding that station officials were informed about the activity “from a citizen.” Pictures of unmarked vehicles operating in the station parking lot circulated on social media prior to the station’s statement.
SCV Sheriff’s Station Capt. Brandon Barclay declined to comment and referred follow-up questions regarding the station’s statement to Nicole Nishida, spokeswoman for the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.
Nishida indicated that the station issued a statement via social media and reiterated what the post said about the station not being notified prior to the operations or coordinating with ICE officials.
In an email Thursday, she wrote that the operations in the station’s parking lot did not violate the county’s “Sensitive Locations Policy,” which the Board of Supervisors approved in November 2025.
“ICE agents did NOT notify the station prior to the arrests. It appears that they used the public parking lot in front of the station (emphasis hers). The arrests occurred after the individuals had been released from custody and outside any Sheriff’s Department facility. Station personnel did NOT notify ICE of their impending release and did NOT coordinate any transfer of the individuals into ICE custody,” Nishida wrote in an email Thursday.
She said county policy designates “all property owned, leased, or controlled by the county as ‘sensitive locations.’” She reiterated that the arrests happened in a “public place.”
In January, county supervisors took their sensitive places policy a step further with “Creating ICE-Free Zones in Los Angeles County,” on a motion by Supervisors Lindsay Horvath and Hilda Solis. It passed unanimously with a yes vote from 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents the Santa Clarita Valley.
That policy requires all county-owned property have signage that states the following: “This property is owned and controlled by the county of Los Angeles. It may not be used for unauthorized civil law enforcement, including civil immigration enforcement, as a staging area, processing location, or operations base,” according to the motion. The motion also “requires any civil law enforcement entity to seek a permit from the appropriate county department to conduct any civil law enforcement staging, processing, or operations in advance of such operations, with an exception for exigent circumstances or a judicial warrant.”
On Friday, Nishida said she was looking into the policy question and would issue a response when possible.
