U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials confirmed Sunday that they had no prior encounters with the man suspected of fatally shooting a Stanislaus County police officer until his arrest Friday.

The arrest of Gustavo Perez Arriaga, 32, ended a statewide manhunt that followed the Wednesday killing of Newman police Cpl. Ronil Singh, who officials say pulled over Arriaga on suspicion of driving under the influence. Reports that Arriaga, a Mexico native, was in the U.S. illegally and had previous arrests fanned the flames of a national debate over California’s sanctuary policies.

In a statement emailed to The Chronicle on Sunday, ICE officials said they have now lodged detainers on Arriaga and his alleged accomplices. Their statement echoed the sentiments of Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson, who directly linked the officer’s death to the state’s laws.

“We remain deeply concerned that California’s sanctuary laws continue to undermine public safety and cause preventable crimes by restricting law enforcement cooperation and allowing public safety threats back into the community to reoffend,” ICE spokeswoman Liz Johnson said in the statement.

President Trump also has seized on the case in a call for tougher border security. Tweeting about the manhunt, the president held up the case as grounds to “Build the Wall.”

ICE also placed detainers on at least six of the seven people in custody on suspicion of aiding Arriaga in what police said was his attempt to escape to Mexico.

They include Arriaga’s 34-year-old brother, Conrado Virgen Mendoza; Conrado’s 30-year-old girlfriend, Ana Leyde Cervantes; Arriaga’s 25-year-old brother, Adrian Virgen Mendoza; and Adrian’s co-worker, Erik Razo-Quiroz.

The others in custody are Bernabe Madrigal Casteneda, 59; Erasmo Villegas, 36; and Maria Luisa Moreno, 57. Johnson could not confirm on Sunday whether there is a detainer on Casteneda.

Adrian Mendoza has a prior misdemeanor conviction in California and no known immigration encounters, and Razo-Quiroz had a prior felony conviction in California and two previous returns to Mexico. His most recent removal from the U.S. occurred in March 2012, according to ICE officials.

Christianson said Friday that the two “intentionally lied to us ... they provided information that was false, all in an attempt to protect their brother.”

Arriaga was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in the Madera County town of Chowchilla on June 5, 2014, more than three years before the state’s sanctuary law prohibited local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. It is unclear whether Madera County officials knew of Arriaga’s immigration status or alerted federal authorities.

Chowchilla Police Chief David Riviere told The Chronicle on Friday that Arriaga also had a warrant out for his arrest for driving unlicensed and not having insurance.

“As far as immigration status, I can tell you we do not ask those questions. We have no reason to,” Riviere said. “He was stopped for a traffic violation and found to be DUI.”

Bill Hing, a professor of law and migration studies at the University of San Francisco, said he was not surprised that ICE had no prior contact with Arriaga.

“Every day across the country police have encounters with people who they might think are undocumented immigrants, but they’re not sure,” said Hing, who stepped down as a San Francisco police commissioner in April. “The vast majority of police officers just don’t go out of their way to enforce immigration laws for one of two reasons: It’s not their job, or it’s something relatively minor.”

An officer might ask, Hing said, “Why should I go out of my way to possibly hurt somebody’s family?”

In a Friday news conference, Christianson used Singh’s death to criticize California’s immigration law and suggested it was to blame for the shooting.

“We were prohibited — law enforcement was prohibited because of sanctuary laws and that led to the encounter with officer Singh,” Christianson said. “The outcome could have been different if law enforcement wasn’t restricted, prohibited, or had their hands tied because of political interference.”

The state law signed in 2017 prohibits local law enforcement from notifying federal immigration agents about a detained immigrant’s information if the person is not accused of a serious crime.

Christianson was not available for comment Sunday, but spokesman Deputy Royjindar Singh said the department is unaware of any other arrests since the sanctuary policy took effect this year.

“We have not had prior contact with him in our county,” he said. There is no relation between Singh and the fallen officer.

Jorge-Mario Cabrera of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles said the case presented unique circumstances, and that it was wrong to politicize it.

“If we start assuming every single undocumented immigrant is likely to commit serious crimes and therefore should be reported to immigration authorities without cause or respect to due process, we are no better than the Gestapo,” he said.

Hing also expressed concern about the case being politicized.

Officers who don’t report people they suspect are in the country illegally make that decision, Hing said, “because they know that if the word gets out that we’re turning everybody that we think is possibly undocumented into ICE, or we’re calling ICE when somebody doesn’t speak English, then this whole community is going to distrust us.”

Police say Arriaga shot Singh around 1 a.m. Wednesday in Newman. Singh, a 33-year-old husband and father of a 5-month-old boy, had legally immigrated to the United States from Fiji to pursue a dream of becoming a police officer.

Arriaga, a day laborer who worked around the Central Valley, surrendered early Friday as SWAT officers moved in on a house on the 8200 block of Brooks Lane just south of Bakersfield.

He is being held at a facility in Modesto without bail.

Chronicle staff writers Karen de Sá and Melia Russell contributed to this report.

Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy