Last week, ICE detained a 30-year-old Berkeley resident who overstayed a visa issued to him in 2024. He is now being held in a detention facility 260 miles away from Berkeley. Although this is the first known ICE operation in the city conducted under the second Trump administration — a government that has demonstrated a flagrant disregard for civil liberties — nothing indicates it will be the last.
The Editorial Board strongly condemns the use of ICE to terrorize immigrant communities and finds that this action reveals the precarity of Berkeley’s characterization as a sanctuary city.
The July 9 detainment cannot be looked at as a one-off incident. Having crept into our communities once, it is almost a certainty that ICE will do so once again if the right steps are not taken. Thus, we urge the people and the city of Berkeley to fight back through policy change and resistance.
Our city council is the first line of defense. As ICE is a federal agency that is constantly expanding its capabilities, there are unfortunately few barriers Berkeley can construct to impede enforcement; however, there are changes that, if made, can delay the encroachment.
The most pressing is the city council’s reliance on Flock Safety. The city operates automated license plate readers and cameras offering the Berkeley Police Department live views of public areas. Although Flock denies sharing data with immigration enforcement, ICE has repeatedly accessed this data nationwide. Berkeley fundamentally cannot claim sanctuary status while simultaneously contracting 52 cameras with Flock. It is reprehensible for Berkeley to maintain ties with a company that has such a malignant track record.
Furthermore, Alameda County appears to collaborate more materially with ICE. Last year, the county sheriff’s office received nearly a million dollars from a program partially operated by ICE, according to nonprofit newsroom Bolts. In return, the county provided the agency with personally identifiable information about detained immigrants, including names, ID numbers and countries of origin. San Francisco has already ended its cooperation with the program; it’s time for the rest of the Bay Area to do the same.
But changes to policy alone will not be enough to fully shield residents from danger.
Berkeley City Council does not have the resources or leverage to prevent ICE — an agency with an estimated $29 billion in cash on hand each year, and which has shown a lack of deference to state or local authority — from entering and terrorizing our communities. Given the limits of what the municipal government is capable of, the real burden of resistance falls onto Berkeley residents.
When faced with injustice and predatory policing, we, as citizens, must take on the responsibility of defending those who are not able to defend themselves. We must treat vigilance as a civic responsibility. Community organization, strengthening information accessibility as well as volunteering at local support centers constitute stepping stones to turn passive concern into active deterrence.
In this perilous moment, desensitization cannot be an option. When overpolicing becomes commonplace, it is easy for outrage and concern to fade into background noise, and it is precisely this communal numbness that enables the inhumane treatment of immigrants to propagate. Each resident who partakes in resistance embodies the act of defiance that prevents our community from becoming complicit.
Our city officials are not exempt from their responsibilities, but without levers of power, defence must be undertaken by Berkeley residents. In this political climate, sanctuary status means nothing if it only governs city officials’ behavior while allowing federal involvement to slip through the side doors.
Until our city and county close these doors, the people of Berkeley must become the sanctuary.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Daily Californian’s Editorial Board. This piece was written by Grace Barkett, Lily Grodzins and Tariq Ravasia. Contact the opinion desk at opinion@dailycal.org or follow us on X.