RICHMOND — The Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office has started publishing the release dates of inmates on its website, including undocumented immigrants, using a loophole experts feel is an indirect communication with ICE.

The state’s sanctuary laws usually aim to prevent a local law enforcement agency from notifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of an inmate’s release date. The sheriff’s office only started publishing inmates’ release dates on its website in mid-February.

“They found a loophole. They are being very clever,” said Peter Scheer, board member and open government lawyer with the First Amendment Coalition. “They are exploiting an exception in the law that was put there to avoid withholding of information that would normally be public under the Public Records Act.”

The California Values Act, also known as SB 54, went into effect on Jan. 1 and barred local law enforcement agencies from cooperating and communicating with ICE in some ways, but left open other avenues of communication.

Under SB 54, local law enforcement agencies are prohibited from relaying release dates to ICE unless the local agency had a “practice or policy” of releasing the information to the public, according to a guidance bulletin issued by Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office on Wednesday.

Saira Hussain, an attorney with the Asian Law Caucus and the Contra Costa Immigration Rights Alliance, said the timing of this release concerned her. Before 2018, none of this information was published online.

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“They are starting to publish these release dates when prior to this, they weren’t doing that,” Hussain said. “If they are doing it now, it is a real serious matter. They are doing it only for the purpose of assisting ICE in deporting people.”

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office issued a news release on Monday stating that it will start publicly posting release dates to “enhance communication” with ICE.

“SB 54 clearly permits information that is made publicly available to be shared,” said Cory Salzillo, legislative director of the California State Sheriffs’ Association. “Making inmate release dates public is not a new requirement. More recently, some counties have adopted new policies.”

The Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office started publishing the names of incarcerated individuals and the dates they would be released from custody on Feb. 16.

Matt Schuler, assistant sheriff for Custody Services, wrote in an email that the new practice was in response to a request from organizations that assist with inmates’ reentry into public life.

“This information is public and can be helpful to other governmental organizations, crime victims, inmates’ family members and others. Additionally, organizations who provide services to persons released from custody have specifically asked for this information so they can start reentry transition assistance right away. Releasing this public information is an important part of the County’s Reentry Strategic Plan.”

The Sheriff’s Office did not respond to questions asking which agencies requested this publication, nor whether this practice conflicted with SB 54.

In early March, Sheriff David Livingston banned volunteers from CIVIC (Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement) from entering the West Contra Costa jail, alleging it “poses a security and safety hazard.”

In November, CIVIC published allegations of abuse by deputies overseeing female ICE detainees at the facility.

Representative Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) visited with the sheriff’s office and after hearing both sides of the issue concluded the county should no longer have a contract with ICE to house detainees.

On Thursday, DeSaulnier placed the blame for local and federal conflicts on the shoulders of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) for blocking any bill from being brought to the floor unless a majority of the Republicans in the House of Representatives supported it.

“There are bipartisan efforts in the past or currently that would solve this. It wouldn’t change the political discussion, but it would solve these conflicts and local governments would adhere to them,” DeSaulnier said. “But we have people like Steve Bannon that want to introduce the race card and the speaker won’t let us vote on it.”

The West County Detention Facility is the only immigration detention facility in the Bay Area.

Whenever anyone is booked into the West County Detention Facility their fingerprints are automatically sent to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, and the FBI. The Sheriff’s Office does not hold undocumented immigrants in jail longer than their scheduled release date, according to its website.

The Sheriff’s Office receives around $6 million a year under a contract with ICE to hold undocumented immigrants in the West County Detention Facility. Around 200 undocumented immigrant detainees are there on an average day.

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Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office did not respond to requests for an interview or provide answers to specific questions for this story, but did email a portion of the AG’s guidance Thursday afternoon.