Hundreds of criminal non-citizens have been transferred from jails into federal custody in the Los Angeles area, the Inland Empire and elsewhere as part of Operation Guardian Angel, an effort federal officials said Wednesday is aimed at neutralizing California’s sanctuary state law.
Operation Guardian Angel’s goal is to take custody of inmates who are in the country illegally and being held in county jails, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
SB 54, also known as the California Values Act, signed into law in 2017, limits state and local police cooperation with federal immigration officers and restricts local resources from being used to remove undocumented people.
Operation Guardian Angel works by securing federal arrest warrants for non-citizens recently arrested by local law enforcement. Once issued, local jails are legally required to honor the arrest warrants and must hand over the specified defendants in their custody to the federal government, according to the DOJ.
The operation began in May 2025 and has resulted in 769 arrest warrants issued, and the actual transfer of 362 defendants — 347 of whom are federally charged with illegally re-entering the United States following removal, or another federal offense, the DOJ said.
Other federal charges include unlawful possession of a firearm by an alien, unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, using a firearm in drug trafficking or a crime of violence, and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.
“Broken California `sanctuary state’ policies endanger the public and cannot go unchallenged by the federal government,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement. “Operation Guardian Angel is an answer to these misguided policies. Through this task force we are forcing California to do the thing it hates most: handing hundreds of criminal illegal aliens into federal custody to face justice and deportation.”
Defendants taken into federal custody under the program include:
— Jaime RodrÃguez Ladesma, 70, of Long Beach, a non-citizen from Mexico who was convicted in Los Angeles Superior Court in October 2023 of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 and who was removed in December 2023. He subsequently illegally returned to the United States and was convicted of being found in the U.S. following removal, federal officials said. He was removed to Mexico in March 2026;
— Ricardo López Jaramillo, 50, also known as “Sharky,” of Pasadena, a five-times-deported non-citizen from Mexico and gang member whose criminal history includes multiple felony robbery convictions in Los Angeles County, and a 2007 conviction in San Diego federal court of three counts of illegal entry, for which he was sentenced to three years in federal prison. In November 2025, he was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to being in the U.S. following removal. He was removed to Mexico in June 2026; and
— Andrés Velásquez Ocampo, 37, of Santa Ana, a non-citizen from Mexico who was deported in January 2019 and was arrested in South Gate in May 2025 on drug charges. His criminal history includes convictions for carjacking and hit-and-run with property damage, according to the DOJ. He pleaded guilty in November 2025 to one count of being a person found in the U.S. following removal, was sentenced to three months in federal prison, and was removed to Mexico in December 2025.