In a Merced Sun-Star interview (Oct. 1, 2025) following his brief presentation (on Sept. 9, 2025) to the Merced County Board of Supervisors, Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke dismissed the California Values Act and the TRUTH Act as “a waste of taxpayer money.” That is wrong, and as concerned residents, we want the public to be accurately informed as to what these laws are, and why they are important and not a waste.
These laws are intended to protect immigrants, who are valuable and essential members of our community. But these state laws also protect all of us because they guard the relationship of trust between immigrants and state and local agencies while those immigrants seek basic health services, attend school or interact with law enforcement whether as witness or victim.
Immigration laws are complicated and difficult to understand. We sincerely hope that someday the federal government will be able to pass sensible comprehensive immigration reform; until then, our state and our community are fortunate to have these recent laws. Both laws were enacted to ensure that all Californians, regardless of immigration status, can live free from fear of arrest and/or deportation for engaging with public institutions. These laws reflect a simple truth: Safety depends on trust.
The Transparent Review of Unjust Transfers and Holds (TRUTH) Act is about transparency in local law enforcement’s cooperation with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Since January 2017, it has required agencies to notify a detained person regarding any ICE holds and provide know-your-rights information.
SB 54, also known as the California Values Act, is a related state law that also went into effect in 2017. While the TRUTH Act is about transparency among law enforcement, immigrants and their community, SB 54 presents a values-based reasoning for its restrictions preventing state and local law enforcement agencies from using their resources to assist federal enforcement agencies.
During the Sun-Star interview, Warnke expressed concern and suggested, without evidence, that these California laws themselves make crime worse and our community less safe. Yet multiple studies, including one from 2020 by the Center for American Progress, have shown no link between sanctuary policies and increased crime rates.
Warnke even suggested that if he could cooperate with ICE, they would not “come into the community [and] start snatching people up.”
The law does allow the sheriff and his agencies to cooperate with ICE for serious or dangerous felons. But if the sheriff starts cooperating with ICE for every contact or detention, he will break the relationship of trust between his staff and the immigrant community.
When families fear calling 911, when parents are afraid to pick up their children from school and when victims hesitate to report abuse, every resident becomes less safe.
The sheriff is entitled to his personal opinion, and our current immigration situation “sits raw with” us also. But unfortunately, the sheriff’s biased and factually incorrect statements during his interview in his capacity as Merced County sheriff will be accepted by some in our community as true because he is the sheriff.
Despite what we have been told nationally, ICE and CBP (Customs and Border Protection) are not removing the worst of the worst. We can see this for ourselves daily on TV and social media.
Instead, people essential to their communities are being stopped based on the color of their skin, targeted based not on crimes but rather on the types of difficult, undesirable jobs they often work, then deported without due process.
How was this ever going to be an operable way of eliminating crime? There is no safe space as hospitals, clinics and places of worship are also targets.
It is not about arresting the worst criminals. It is about a lot of things, but was never really about crime.
Immigrants commit fewer crimes than people born and raised here. Real criminals hide and are hard to catch. But hardworking immigrants are easy to find and snatch while picking up their kids at our local schools, while tending to our crops or while cooking our meals.
If we are not removing the worst criminals—70% of the arrested have been lawful residents and U.S. citizens—why are we traumatizing communities?
When a society scapegoats and persecutes a vulnerable population, the time often comes when there is large-scale regret within that society for the harm caused, not just to the vulnerable population, but regret for the damage to their local communities and the larger society, and the self-harm that being caught up in such madness can cause.
Damage, harm and waste. What is happening to communities across this country is such a shameful waste and morally wrong.
Warnke identified the real burden as being the time required “to devote staff to maintain records, to put together a report,” but this could be one of the least costly elements of our current immigration regime.
How much is it costing nationally to divert federal agents and resources from other law enforcement priorities, and what is the cost of constant raids on workers with no criminal record?
What we are seeing play out across this country is not a coherent immigration policy. This is not how we should be dealing with immigration—not in this great nation filled with so many immigrants and their descendants.
We need a comprehensive national immigration policy that includes funding for enough immigration judges to handle refugee asylum cases, a policy that has a better way for workers to come here to work and a clear pathway to citizenship.
We need a policy that does not require a militarized force snatching people from their workplaces, from schools while picking up their kids or from courthouses where they go to check in as part of their immigration requirements.
Until that day, we are grateful to have the California Values Act and the TRUTH Act.
