A row of seven pay-phone booths lines the corner of Bauchet and Vignes streets downtown here, just outside the walls of the L.A. County Men’s Central Jail. From that corner, newly released inmates and visiting families can nearly make out the top of the federal building just a mile south, across the 101 Freeway, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers determine the fate of thousands who pass through the county jail gates. In 2009, Los Angeles County became one of the first in the nation to partner with ICE in a program called Se Communities, which allows federal agents to access the fingerprints of anyone who has been arrested to see if he or she is subject to deportation. This partnership led to the transfer of nearly 20,000 inmates from jails in L.A. County to ICE custody in 2011. Those transferred, mostly Hispanic males who had committed nonviolent crimes
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