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This is the kind of leadership we need to see across the state of California.
Doctrine of Lesser Magistrates must become the norm, the rule, the necessity from all our constitutional officers throughout the state of California.
Sheriffs are special, noble officers. They are duty-bound to the United States Constitution, and they answr directly to the people, not to the Governor. not to the Board of Supervisors, and not to any federal official, either.
God bless this Sheriff!
Meet the only sheriff vowing to defy California’s sanctuarylaw
By Connor Letourneau,Enterprise reporterMarch 30, 2025
Amador County Sheriff Gary Redman stands in the middle of
Main Street in the town of Jackson, Calif., the most populated municipality in
Amador County. Redman has courted controversy by saying he won’t enforce the
state’s immigration sanctuary laws.
Louis Bryant III/For the S.F. Chronicle
JACKSON, Amador County — Sheriff Gary Redman
guided his gray Ford Expedition down Highway 49, past the oak-studded foothills
and 19th century barns of Northern California’s Gold Country.
“I love this place,” he said. “I’d do anything to protect my
county. If I have to break state law to do it, that’s what I’ll do.”
Even if that means taking a surprising stand in a state
known for protecting its immigrants. In a 274-word announcement posted last month to the Amador
County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, Redman pledged to break California’s
sanctuary law by informing Immigration and Customs Enforcement of any
undocumented immigrants in his jail whom he deems “a serious threat.”
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Never mind that Redman serves an oft-overlooked county about
130 miles northeast of San Francisco where less than 6% of the roughly 40,000
residents are foreign-born. Though President Donald Trump’s return to office in
late January emboldened his supporters to challenge California’s
pro-immigration laws that some view as anti-public safety, Redman remains the
only sheriff in the state who has pledged to defy state sanctuary law, which
largely forbids police from participating in immigration issues.
Amador County Sheriff Gary Redman, March 12, 2025, cites
statistics justifying his decision to defy California’s sanctuary state law and
report undocumented violent offenders to ICE.
Louis Bryant III/For the S.F. Chronicle
In doing so, he vaulted Amador County to the center of
a heated statewide debate on immigration enforcement.
When Redman’s inbox began to flood post-announcement with interview requests,
he cut short his off day, shaved his 5 o’clock shadow and told his wife she had
been right: This was becoming a big deal.
Whether people considered the 57-year-old Redman a traitor
to his community or a patriot might have depended on their perspective. Passed
in 2017 during the first Trump administration, California’s sanctuary law was
created to make undocumented immigrants feel comfortable seeking out local
police when problems arise.
The law’s advocates, who include many sheriff’s departments,
now worry that Redman’s decision to break it would have the opposite effect as
intended. Rather than making Amador County safer by notifying ICE of certain
violent people who are in the country illegally, he might in fact hurt public
safety. Many unauthorized immigrants wouldn’t cooperate with police on
non-immigration matters, Redman’s critics argue, out of fear that they could
get deported.
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“When a sheriff comes out and proclaims, ‘We want to work
with ICE and violate state law,’ it doesn’t inspire public safety —
especially among the immigrant community,” said Maria Romani, immigrant rights
program director at the ACLU of Northern California. “Now is the time to be
working with the immigrant community, not against it.”
Romani was among the many people who were confused when
Redman took such a brazen stand against state sanctuary law. Unlike their
counterparts in certain other Trump-supporting counties in California, Amador
County officials didn’t have a history of vocally opposing immigration policy,
which made some wonder: Does Redman have a political agenda? And if so, is he
elevating it over the public safety of his community?
Amador County Sheriff Gary Redman speaking with Amador
County Sergeant Casey Ryan as he drives down the main street of Jackson, Calif.
Louis Bryant III/For the S.F. Chronicle
Redman plans to run for reelection in 2028. Though he’s
adamant that his public rejection of state sanctuary law is not politically
motivated, few doubt that the move only buoyed his already favorable odds of
serving his red-majority county beyond this term.
“It’s not his job to enforce immigration law, and the state
Legislature has made that extremely clear,” Romani said. “It’s frightening to
me that he’s taking this stand when it doesn’t serve the greater good of his
community.”
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Most people in Amador County, which has nearly twice as many
registered Republicans as registered Democrats, see things differently. On top
of touting a burgeoning wine-making scene, two large casinos and several
old-timey main streets reminiscent of its gold-rush heyday of the mid-1800s,
this rural region nestled into the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada
features serpentine roads dotted with numerous Trump signs.
Many residents know the name of Laken Riley, the nursing
student who was murdered last year in Georgia by an unauthorized immigrant from
Venezuela. The Laken Riley Act, the first piece of legislation that
Trump signed into law at the start of his second term, directs authorities to
detain and deport immigrants who are accused — not yet convicted — of
specific crimes, if they are in the U.S. illegally.
“Gary’s for law and order and safety, and this is a safety
issue,” said Jim Guidi, who owns and operates a popular radio station, KVGC, in
Amador County. “These people we’re talking about came here illegally, so they
need to go. Simple as that.”
The United States flag waves in the center of the former
mining town of Amador City, Calif., with the historic brick Imperial Hotel in
the background.
Louis Bryant III/For the S.F. Chronicle
Federal courts upheld California’s sanctuary law during
Trump’s first term, yet Redman still felt compelled to assert his belief in
that Feb. 18 news release posted to Facebook that following it would violate
federal law. Many locals not only agreed with him — they lauded him as a
hero.
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By becoming the state’s only sheriff to announce his
intention to outright break state sanctuary law, Redman endeared himself to
ardent Trump supporters who fear California could lose federal funding if the state doesn’t
cooperate with Trump’s mass deportation agenda. This perhaps helps explain why
a Change.org petition pleading for Redman’s removal as sheriff has netted
only 24 signatures in five weeks.
“I think Republicans throughout the state saw an opportunity
when Trump was reelected to push back against the state’s more liberal approach
to immigration policy,” said Cathy Abernathy, a Republican strategist based in
Bakersfield. “People like (Sheriff Redman) probably feel more comfortable
doing what they always wanted to do now that Trump is back in office.”
Along the way, Redman has put himself at risk of state
retribution. Asked about potential punishments for Redman, California Attorney
General Rob Bonta reiterated in an email to the Chronicle that federal courts
have found that the state sanctuary law doesn’t conflict with federal law, and
that he is “closely monitoring law enforcement compliance.”
In what could be a sign of things to come, Washington
Attorney General Nick Brown filed a lawsuit three weeks ago saying the sheriff in
a rural, predominantly red county in the southeastern part of that state had
been breaking state sanctuary law for at least three years by helping federal
immigration officers round up suspected undocumented immigrants. The lawsuit
alleges that Adams County Sheriff Dale J. Wagner has gone out of his way
“to enable federal immigration agents to interview or question people in
custody.”
A pedestrian, seen from Amador County Sheriff Gary Redman’s
unmarked patrol vehicle window, waits for an opportuntity to cross the road in
the small town of Plymouth, Calif.
Louis Bryant III/For the S.F. Chronicle
On an overcast Wednesday morning in mid-March, Redman leaned
forward at his desk as he stressed that he has no intention of following
Wagner’s example and rounding up unauthorized immigrants for mass deportations.
Three different American flags hung prominently on the adjacent walls.
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“I know people think I’m some far right winger, but I’m
really not,” said Redman, who considers himself a moderate Republican. “I’m
just a guy trying to do right by the county I love.”
A self-described “surf bum” from the sandy beaches just
south of Los Angeles, Redman was an unmotivated 19-year-old when his father
gave him an ultimatum in 1988: “Either get a full-time job or attend college
full-time.” After dropping out of the couple of classes he was taking at the
local community college, he enlisted in the Air Force, where he was randomly
assigned a job as a police officer.
While stationed in Germany, Redman met and married a woman
from near Amador County. After finishing his four-year commitment to the Air
Force, he moved to his new wife’s hometown, where he found work in her family’s
concrete-pumping business. It didn’t take Redman long to regret leaving law
enforcement.
Then, when he was finally hired by the Los Angeles Police
Department in 1996 after three separate attempts, he began to miss Gold
Country. Two years later, Redman took a 26% pay cut to join the Amador County
Sheriff’s Office as a lateral deputy and raise kids in a more peaceful
environment.
Locals having afternoon food and drinks at Mel & Fayes
Diner, a well-known eating spot in the town of Jackson, Calif.
Louis Bryant III/For the S.F. Chronicle
While cruising the remote county’s backroads earlier this
month, he chuckled when a police dispatcher radioed for help moving a herd of
goats blocking a nearby street.
“That’s life in Amador right there,” Redman said. “I can’t
tell you how many ostriches, emus and cows I’ve had to chase over the years.”
But in a county with the state’s third-highest suicide rate,
Redman also has far-grimmer responsibilities. His jurisdiction is so tiny that
he moonlights as its coroner.
By investigating deaths up close, he has a near-constant
reminder of all that must still be done to improve Amador County’s quality of
life, which is why he plans to break state sanctuary law if he feels a specific
circumstance warrants an undocumented immigrant being turned over to ICE
against protocol. As he acknowledged, such situations are
rare — especially in a 605-square-mile area where roughly 75% of residents are white and almost 98% are U.S. citizens.
According to state sanctuary law, police can actually inform
immigration agents about an undocumented immigrant once that person has served
the court-mandated sentence for what the penal code considers a “serious” or
“violent” felony — a wide-spanning list that includes everything from a
felony DUI, to obstruction of justice and bribery. To justify breaking state
law, Redman said, he would need an inmate in his 76-person jail who’s in the
U.S. illegally, poses a danger to the community and is in
custody for an offense that wouldn’t otherwise enable Redman to contact
immigration agents lawfully.
A Main Street scene in the small town of Jackson, Calif.,
located in Amador County.
Louis Bryant III/For the S.F. Chronicle
Though Amador County has one of the smallest foreign-born populations in the
state, Redman said local police officers most frequently come across
unauthorized immigrants during raids at illegal marijuana grows. According to
stats compiled by Redman’s office, this scenic region known as the “heart of
the Mother Lode” has had 73 illegal marijuana operations over the past decade
that resulted in the arrests of 232 immigrants, many of whom police believed
were undocumented.
“There’s absolutely no good reason why a locally-elected
sheriff should not be able to report an illegal marijuana grower to immigration
authorities if he’s worried about what that person could do next,” said Rep.
Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, who recently introduced a federal bill that would allow local
police to ignore state sanctuary laws. “The idea that the state would try to
impose itself in that situation is completely irrational.”
Still, that’s not why Redman published last month’s
now-infamous news release. All he wanted was to quell the relentless questions
he had fielded from residents — and even some deputies — about how
his office would handle immigration issues during Trump’s second term.
Perhaps more startling than the backlash to that
announcement: None of California’s 57 other sheriffs have joined him in vowing
to defy state sanctuary law.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a top Trump ally who’s
running for governor, would only go so far as to promise he’d work “around” the
liberal-leaning statute to assist federal immigration enforcement. In recent
weeks, at least two California towns, Oroville and Huntington Beach, reinforced the awkward political minefield some
conservative leaders are navigating: They declared themselves “non-sanctuary”
cities, yet promised to continue complying with state sanctuary law.
Sheriff Gary Redman said, “I became a cop to help
people. I guess in a way, I like taking bad people to jail, which is helping
people.”
Louis Bryant III/For the S.F. Chronicle
Redman figures he doesn’t have an aptitude for such
posturing.
After an hour-long drive through Amador County’s rolling
green hills and steep canyons, he walked through the lobby of his sheriff’s
office and stopped at a large American flag banner. Six words were emblazoned
across it in big block letters: “PROUD TO SERVE, READY TO PROTECT.”
“Seeing that every day is just a good reminder of why we do
what we do,” Redman said. “No state law can change that.”
