Photo: Tatiana Sanchez / The Chronicle

San Mateo County is taking heat from immigration advocates for its continued cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even as neighboring counties in the Bay Area have pushed to keep the agency at arm’s length in their communities.

Law enforcement officers in San Mateo County turned over 46 immigrants to ICE from November to August, Sheriff Carlos Bolanos said during a public forum before the Board of Supervisors Wednesday. Bolanos said the transfers targeted individuals who had committed serious crimes and that the county “does not enforce federal immigration law.”

“There are times where individuals that come into our custody present a threat to public safety,” said Bolanos. “And my department does cooperate with ICE in these instances as allowed by law.”

SB54, the state sanctuary law, largely prohibits law enforcement agencies from cooperating with ICE but allows them to report violent or serious criminals.

The sheriff’s department received 610 inquiries from ICE last year, according to Bolanos. Of the 46 individuals who were transferred, 36 were convicted of felonies and 10 were convicted of misdemeanors, he said.

But advocates say that at least some of these transfers violated SB54. They allege the sheriff’s department uses loopholes in the law to transfer people to ICE and say working with the federal agency punishes undocumented immigrants twice for committing a crime.

“I’m one of those deemed a murderer. According to society, I cannot be redeemable,” said Ny Nourn, a Cambodian refugee convicted in 2003 for her role in a murder committed by an ex-boyfriend in La Jolla (San Diego County), who was also convicted.

Nourn, a victim of domestic abuse, served nearly 16 years in prison, during which she said she was rehabilitated. She was transferred to ICE immediately after then-Gov. Jerry Brown granted her release in 2017 from a correctional facility in Madera County, north of Fresno.

Immigrants like her deserve a second chance, she said.

“I want you to consider the fact that when you deport somebody, a family member, you’re not just affecting myself and their families but the whole community at large. Because we are redeemable. We are someone’s daughter, children. We shouldn’t be labeled and stigmatized for the rest of our lives.”

Bolanos said he respects advocates’ perspective on the issue but that “what was missing in some of these stories was, what crimes did these type of people commit? They were very quiet on that issue.”

Their convictions included robberies, sex crimes and felony domestic violence, he said.

“Every one of these serious and violent criminals victimized somebody,” Bolanos told The Chronicle Thursday.

ICE said that, to its knowledge, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office has been in “full compliance” with SB54.

“Nevertheless, the agency continues to welcome partnerships with all our local law enforcement partners in spite of nonsensical and unsafe sanctuary laws,” spokesman Paul Prince said in a statement.

Under the California Truth Act, any jurisdictions whose law enforcement agencies transferred individuals to ICE in the previous year must hold a public forum. Every person who spoke Wednesday asked the county to stop cooperating with the agency, pointing to San Francisco and Santa Clara counties, which do not transfer immigrants convicted of crimes to ICE.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in June rejected a proposal to revise the policy to allow local law-enforcement officials to hand over some undocumented immigrants to federal immigration authorities for deportation.

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors did not comment on the issue Wednesday. Supervisor David Canepa asked immigration attorney Grisel Ruiz how San Francisco and Santa Clara counties go after immigrants who commit egregious crimes, such as murder or rape.

Ruiz, of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco, said those individuals would likely have their immigration cases heard while detained in state prison, where there is deeper collaboration with ICE.

Ruiz said at least eight of the county’s transfers to ICE last year violated SB54, including four instances where the immigrants transferred had only committed a “simple misdemeanor” and violations of Proposition 47, a 2014 initiative that changed some low-level crimes from potential felonies to misdemeanors.

“We know that there have been verified violations of the act in this county,” she said. “If our eyes are wide open as to the agency that we’re cooperating with, then we are responsible for that cooperation.”

Tatiana Sanchez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tatiana.sanchez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TatianaYSanchez.