{"id":397319,"date":"2026-07-14T01:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T01:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/397319\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T01:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T01:04:08","slug":"work-at-south-county-ice-facility-temporarily-paused","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/397319\/","title":{"rendered":"Work at South County ICE facility temporarily paused"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Federal authorities have agreed to temporarily pause construction work on the apparent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility taking shape in South County.<\/p>\n<p>The delay is the product of a procedural agreement struck in <a href=\"https:\/\/sanjosespotlight.com\/santa-clara-county-sues-to-stop-planned-ice-facility\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the lawsuit<\/a> brought last month by Santa Clara County and California to block the project. Under the agreement, filed Monday with the Court of the Northern District of California, federal attorneys said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will pause \u201cconstruction and development activities\u201d at the Holsclaw Road property until Sept. 9.<\/p>\n<p>If approved by the court, the compromise measure grants DHS more time to respond to a <a href=\"https:\/\/sanjosespotlight.com\/santa-clara-county-and-state-seek-immediate-halt-to-ice-facility\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recent injunction<\/a> seeking an immediate halt to construction work on the 25-acre parcel on unincorporated Santa Clara County land just east of Gilroy.<\/p>\n<p>In exchange, plaintiffs California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Santa Clara County are asking the court to advance the hearing date <a href=\"https:\/\/sanjosespotlight.com\/south-county-cities-pass-on-joining-ice-facility-lawsuit\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">for the injunction<\/a> to no later than Sept. 9. Previously the hearing had been set for Oct. 7. Such a timeline would have allowed work on the site to proceed for several more months before a court had the opportunity to weigh in.<\/p>\n<p>Originally, DHS would have had to file its response to the injunction by Monday. The agreement grants the agency an extra month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis pause in the construction, demolition and development at the site of the challenged ICE facility is a significant step towards protecting our people, our communities and our environment while the case remains ongoing,\u201d California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. \u201cWe will continue to vigorously litigate this case in court.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>State and county officials announced their lawsuit on June 10 arguing federal authorities have advanced <a href=\"https:\/\/sanjosespotlight.com\/blueprints-confirm-ice-involvement-in-south-county-facility\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the project at 7240 Holsclaw Road<\/a> without conducting environmental reviews or consulting with state and local authorities, as required by law. It also maintains the facility violates zoning rules that reserve the property exclusively for agricultural uses.<a href=\"https:\/\/cta-na2.hubspot.com\/web-interactives\/public\/v1\/track\/redirect?encryptedPayload=AVxigLLpG94agKIRKh43RT9zHzDdhm5RE9S0UfmUoKu2g41I464ysR6ItJM2dnlYbhYli6FiL%2F%2BDwRP6ky7NwbDQRZuxLg6MnZHAwxwxqFIHzB7utss%3D&amp;webInteractiveContentId=321838904008&amp;portalId=44356355\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"height: 100%; width: 100%; object-fit: fill;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/interactive-321838904008.png\" alt=\"In-line Donation CTA 2026 (950 x 287 px)\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Revelations about the facility, <a href=\"https:\/\/sanjosespotlight.com\/federal-detention-center-planned-in-south-county\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first reported by San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight in May<\/a>, have sent shockwaves throughout the Bay Area, fueling concerns that ICE may be laying the groundwork for more extensive immigration enforcement operations in the region.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur lawsuit lays out the many ways the federal government and private property owner violated the law when they charged ahead with this project in secrecy,\u201d Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti said in a statement. \u201cNow that the cat\u2019s out of the bag, we\u2019re pleased that the defendants have agreed to halt construction in advance of the court\u2019s hearing on our request for a preliminary injunction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Representatives for DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>DHS has repeatedly denied any intention of creating a detention center at the location, with representatives previously saying the land will be used for an office facility. The claim contradicts detailed blueprints which bear the logos for ICE and DHS that include detainee processing areas, as well as interview and holding rooms.<\/p>\n<p>Contact Keith Menconi at <a href=\"https:\/\/sanjosespotlight.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection\" class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"a6cdc3cfd2cee6d5c7c8ccc9d5c3d5d6c9d2cacfc1ced288c5c9cb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/a> or @KeithMenconi on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal authorities have agreed to temporarily pause construction work on the apparent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[712,14,88,90,89],"class_list":["post-397319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-centerpiece","tag-immigration","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}