San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow is firing back against a U.S. Department of Homeland Security allegation that California’s “sanctuary politicians” released an inmate who later was charged in the killing of two women and a baby in Modesto.
Withrow said Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not issue a specific hold on the man, but rather a formal request to be notified when Joaquin Escoto Vazquez was released.
But it didn’t matter anyway, the sheriff said, because Vazquez — who had been booked on DUI charges in June 2025 — had already been let go hours before ICE filed its request.
“We didn’t do anything wrong on this,” Withrow said in a video posted on social media. Had Homeland Security officials contacted the Sheriff’s Office before putting out a news release this week blasting California officials, Withrow said he would have set them straight.
Homeland Security’s allegation came as Withrow appeared before the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to report — as required by law — on the number of immigrants in the country illegally whom his office has turned over to ICE in the last year. There were 77 inmates who went into ICE custody out of 859 detainer requests, about 9%. Withrow said the number was low because his office follows a California law that restricts law enforcement’s cooperation with immigration agents.
Vazquez, was arrested one June night a year go, Withrow said. He was booked into the San Joaquin County jail about 1 a.m. on suspicion of driving under the influence and released a short time later, at 6 a.m.
ICE’s “request for advance notice of release” was not sent until about 9 a.m., the sheriff said, and by then, Vazquez was already gone.
Last week, Vazquez, 28, was charged with murder in the stabbing deaths of a 23-year-old woman, her 11-day-old son and the young woman’s 54-year-old mother in Modesto.
“ICE had placed a detainer on him after he was arrested for driving under the influence of liquor in 2025, but California sanctuary politicians chose to RELEASE him instead of turning him over to ICE,” DHS’ Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement this week.
Bis said “this monster’s heinous crime could have been prevented if sanctuary politicians in California simply cooperated with ICE law enforcement.”
The Vazquez case was presented by Homeland Security as an example of California’s refusal to cooperate with federal agents, which the department says has resulted in criminals who are in the country illegally being returned to the streets.
The agency said Vazquez illegally entered California in 2018 and was deported during the first Trump administration. His latest booking records list his birthplace as Jalisco, Mexico.
He later illegally reentered the U.S. prior to his arrest in San Joaquin County in 2025. He now has been charged in the May 28 triple homicide in Modesto. He is being held without bail in the Stanislaus County jail and is scheduled to return to court in July.