In order to stop the California TRUST Act which had gained widespread support, Immigration Customs Enforcement's Director John Morton went as far as to blackmail the Governor of California into vetoing the TRUST Act. When advocates asked the governors office why Brown vetoed the bill, the staff responded that they had received a call from John Morton Director of ICE saying that if Brown doesn't veto the TRUST Act that California would essentially go back to the old days in reference to immigration raids and more overt enforcement.
California would have been the first state in which the impact of "Secure Communities" would be significantly reduced by not honoring immigration detainers. California holds one of the largest undocumented immigrant population in the nation, and deports about 80,000 undocumented immigrants about one fourth of the yearly quota for deportations that the Department of homeland security set in 2010. John Morton could not allow for the TRUST Act to pass, with the Deferred Action for Childhood arrivals now being implemented the pool of deportable immigrants shrunk by almost a million. ICE needed to make sure they meet their 400,000 a year quota for deportations and so they intervened in state politics to ensure the survival of "Secure Communities"
If the "Prosecutorial Discretion" memo were actually implemented, laws like the TRUST Act wouldn't be necessary. The TRUST Act would ensure that people with minor or no offenses would be let go without any immigration consequences; it was California's way of holding the Federal Government accountable.
Currently a LGBTQ undocumented youth who is DREAM Act/DACA eligible has been detained for the past 3 weeks detained in Ventura County as a result of "Secure Communities". Alfred Reyes a community leader since high school, from Boyle Heights/East Los Angeles was arrested and charged with a DUI flagged by "secure communities" Alfredo (www.bit.ly/alfredeastla) now faces deportation to Mexico, even though he came to the United States when he was nine months old. The Immigrant Youth Coalition (www.theiyc.org) launched a campaign with Dreamactivist.org to stop his deportation and highlight the importance of laws like the TRUST Act.