While Alameda County considers itself a sanctuary for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, it does not currently have rules restricting federal immigration agents from using county-owned property for enforcement operations.<\/p>\n
Now, an Alameda County Board of Supervisors committee is making moves to change that.<\/p>\n
At Thursday\u2019s meeting of the Alameda County Together for All ad hoc committee<\/a>, Supervisors Nikki Fortunato Bas and Elisa M\u00e1rquez approved proposals to carve out \u201cICE-free zones\u201d<\/a> at all county-owned facilities and to implement a county-wide coordinated response plan<\/a> for when federal immigration enforcement officers conduct operations locally.<\/p>\n The proposals will be considered and voted on by the full Board of Supervisors on Jan. 27.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal here is simple: Make health care, courts, and other county services accessible to all,\u201d Bas, who chairs the ad hoc committee, said during the meeting at the Alameda County Administration Building in Oakland.<\/p>\n County ICE-free zones would include signage, physical barriers where appropriate, and protocols for enforcement. Federal immigration agents would also be prohibited from using county-controlled parking lots, vacant lots, garages, and areas in county-owned buildings not open to the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bas and M\u00e1rquez also directed the county administrator to create a response plan for immigration enforcement activity that would involve reporting incidents to the Alameda County Immigration Legal Education Partnership<\/a>, training county staff, protecting hospitals and health care facilities, and more.<\/p>\n The committee heard from several county public safety leaders, including the district attorney, the public defender, the sheriff, and the probation chief.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in a state of emergency,\u201d Public Defender Brendon Woods told the committee. Since September, he said, at least six of his office\u2019s clients have been arrested by ICE officers inside or near courthouses.<\/p>\n \u201cThese resolutions bring us closer to providing the basic protections that people are looking to us to provide,\u201d added Woods, whose office houses an Immigration Unit<\/a> representing immigrants facing deportation or at risk of deportation.<\/p>\n Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez said she has made it clear to federal immigration enforcement agencies that she will not accept civil detainers, requests to hold a person at Santa Rita Jail until they can be transferred to an immigration detention facility, and that her deputies will not cooperate with ICE on civil immigration matters.<\/p>\n With federal immigration agents often driving unmarked vehicles or wearing plainclothes as part of their controversial tactics, Sanchez said community members can call the police if they see someone in plainclothes making an arrest to verify whether it is a law enforcement officer.<\/p>\n \u201cHow federal officers are taking that position to not be clearly marked is beyond me,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n Probation Chief Brian Ford said his department has a \u201czero-tolerance policy\u201d on ICE cooperation, citing zero ICE detainers, holds, transfers, interviews, or youth-related inquiries since 2022.<\/p>\n The proposals come after other jurisdictions across the U.S. have passed policies barring federal agents from using public spaces for civil immigration enforcement activities. In October, Chicago<\/a> declared city-owned properties \u201cICE-free zones.\u201d And San Francisco<\/a>, Los Angeles<\/a>, San Jose<\/a>, Santa Clara<\/a>, and other cities and counties have proposed or approved similar ordinances.<\/p>\n Valarie Bachelor, vice president of the Oakland Unified School Board, spoke during public comment in support of both policies. \u201cFor many of our immigrant families, county buildings are not an option \u2014 they are a necessity,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are there to support folks in finding housing, health care, food assistance services, and library books.\u201d<\/p>\n Susan Buensuceso, an organizer for Filipino Advocates for Justice, an Oakland-based nonprofit, also supported the plans, saying her organization works with Filipino caregivers, many of whom are immigrants.<\/p>\n \u201cFilipino caregivers have been providing a very crucial service to residents of Alameda County, and it is extremely sad that they have to hide sometimes,\u201d Buensuceso said. \u201cSome of them cannot go out of the care homes they work at for fear of ICE presence.\u201d<\/p>\n Several speakers also urged the committee to consider barring the federal government from transforming the shuttered women\u2019s prison in Dublin into an immigration detention facility. Kimberly Gasaway, director of the county\u2019s General Services Agency<\/a>, which manages all county-owned land and properties, told Bas and M\u00e1rquez that the former FCI Dublin site is federally owned, meaning the county has no authority over how it is used.<\/p>\n Federal immigration agents have come to Oakland in recent years to question and<\/a> detain families and<\/a> individuals<\/a> in targeted enforcement activities. And last October, the Trump administration planned a crackdown<\/a> and deployed over 100 Customs and Border Protection agents to Coast Guard Island bordering Oakland. Although the operation was called off, this wasn\u2019t before federal law enforcement shot protesters with chemical irritants<\/a>, and one person, in a separate incident, was shot while backing a truck up<\/a> in the direction of officers. A bystander was also wounded in that incident.<\/p>\n During the board\u2019s committee meeting, residents and local public safety leaders expressed concern over the fatal shootings of unarmed civilians Renee Good<\/a> and Keith Porter<\/a> by ICE officers in Minneapolis and Los Angeles, respectively, and whether something like that could happen locally.<\/p>\n