U.S. Attorney’s Office shared results of push to undermine California’s sanctuary laws
LOS ANGELES (KEYT) – On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California shared the results of Operation Guardian Angel, a new federal policy intended to undermine California's sanctuary laws.
Operation Guardian Angel was launched in May of this year across the areas within the Central District of California's jurisdiction which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties.
Since the program's start, 171 federal arrest warrants have been issued and a total of 73 undocumented people already in custody at local jails have been arrested shared the U.S. Attorney's Office Thursday.
An additional five undocumented people were taken into custody at or near county courthouses in connection with the policy change added the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Your News Channel reached out to the U.S. Attorney's Office for more information about the arrest warrants, including if the July 24, 2025, detention of a man leaving the Santa Maria courthouse by federal agents was included in Operation Guardian Angel's published results.
Their response will be added to this article when it is received.
"The goal of Operation Guardian Angel is to neutralize California’s sanctuary state law and policies, which prevent local law enforcement from honoring administrative warrants from federal immigration authorities requesting that criminal illegal aliens be transferred into federal custody," stated Thursday's press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The U.S. Attorney's Office cited a high profile case involving an undocumented man impacting the local region in its justification for Operation Guardian Angel.
Estrada's son was pronounced dead at Twin Cities Hospital.
Ventura County Sheriff's Detectives later shared that Estrada was unable to find a caregiver for his son -referred to as D.I.R.D. in court documents- and left him inside a car in the parking lot of the Paso Robles Inn where he worked for about nine hours before taking the six-year-old to the hospital.
After being arrested and booked at the San Luis Obispo County Jail on charges of murder and willful harm to a child likely to produce great bodily injury, an Immigration Alien Response match for Estrada's fingerprints was sent to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detailed a federal complaint filed later the same month that alleged Estrada had violated 18 U.S.C. § 1543(a)- Fraud and Misuse of Visas, Permits, and Other Documents.
Estrada had been arrested two weeks before his son's death on unrelated charges, but was not turned over to federal immigration authorities after being released from San Luis Obispo County Jail pursuant to California's SB 54 noted the U.S. Attorney's Office.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Estrada faces up to ten years in federal prison and remains in state custody without bail while awaiting local prosecution in connection with his son's death.
Operation Guardian Angel is part of the U.S. Department of Justice's nationwide initiative, Operation Take Back America, authorized by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in early March of this year.
"This program’s [Operation Guardian Angel] initial results show that my office no longer stands idly by while criminal illegal aliens are released from city and county jails and onto our streets," said Acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli. "California’s misguided sanctuary state laws and policies only protect criminal illegal aliens, which can no longer be tolerated."
