{"id":406672,"date":"2026-07-21T15:40:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T15:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/406672\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T15:40:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T15:40:22","slug":"oakland-city-council-to-consider-stronger-immigrant-protections-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/406672\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland City Council to consider stronger immigrant protections"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. – The Oakland <\/a>City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on a proposed ordinance that would strengthen protections for immigrants <\/a>by limiting city cooperation with federal civil immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the vote, Mayor Barbara Lee joined City Council members Charlene Wang, Noel Gallo and Ken Houston, along with community advocates, at a rally Monday urging the council to approve the “City of Refuge” measure.<\/p>\n

Oakland has been a sanctuary city since the 1980s, with policies welcoming immigrants regardless of their legal status.<\/p>\n

“We are a community who values everyone’s civil and human rights, regardless of status,” Lee said. “We’re not going to allow ICE to come in and terrorize our communities.”<\/p>\n

What the ordinance would do<\/p>\n

What we know<\/p>\n

If approved, the ordinance would:<\/p>\n

Restrict the collection of immigration status on city forms.<\/p>\n

Prohibit the use of city resources for civil immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

Bar Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from accessing nonpublic city facilities without a judicial warrant.<\/p>\n

Reinforce the city’s prohibition on police assisting with civil immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

“We have not put into our laws something as concrete as to say that OPD shall not detain anyone on the basis of a civil immigration detainer,” Wang said.<\/p>\n

Oakland police leaders said the ordinance could help strengthen trust between officers and immigrant communities.<\/p>\n

“One of the biggest things that we support with this policy is the hope that the community understands that we are here to provide a service and that we want them to call and report any crime, especially if they’re victims,” Acting Deputy Chief Francisco Rojas said.<\/p>\n

Jim Wood, an attorney and Faith in Action East Bay leader who helped draft the ordinance, said the proposal benefits the entire city.<\/p>\n

“It protects immigrants directly, but it also protects every neighborhood in Oakland by building trust in city services, fortifying public safety,” Wood said.<\/p>\n

Community groups cite growing fear<\/p>\n

What they’re saying<\/p>\n

Community organizations said there is widespread fear among immigrant groups in Oakland, and there was a 57% increase in school absences by families with English learners during the 2025-26 school year.<\/p>\n

“We’re definitely seeing an increase in fearfulness in our community,” said Sheila Bharat, a therapist with the Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants. “There’s a lot of hopelessness and a lot of re-traumatization. Folks are remembering what it was like when they first fled their countries of origin and felt persecuted.”<\/p>\n

Bharat said many clients are experiencing symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n

“They’re not wanting to take their children to school and just go out shopping in general, so it’s become a really challenging time for our community,” said Alba Hernandez, a member of Faith in Action.<\/p>\n

Opposition to sanctuary policies<\/p>\n

The Trump administration and many Republican leaders have long attacked sanctuary cities, saying they are too lenient on criminals.<\/p>\n

Before his death, Sen. Lindsey Graham<\/a> introduced the “End Sanctuary Cities Act,” legislation that would impose criminal penalties on state and local officials who fail to comply with Department of Homeland Security immigration detainer requests.<\/p>\n

Despite that, Oakland advocates said they plan to fight back.<\/p>\n

“This is not the ending of this; it’s only the beginning,” said Christopher Martinez, executive director of the Spanish Speaking Citizens’ Foundation. “We do want the city to take further steps to really strengthen the safety net.”<\/p>\n

Council vote Tuesday<\/p>\n

What’s next<\/p>\n

The Oakland City Council is scheduled to consider the ordinance during its meeting, which begins at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Calif. – The Oakland City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on a proposed ordinance that would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2351,22371,1610,163023,5528,143,5365,145,144,2452,17349],"class_list":["post-406672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-barbara-lee","tag-charlene-wang","tag-city-council","tag-city-of-refuge","tag-immigration-enforcement","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-city-council","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-oakland-police","tag-sanctuary-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406672","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=406672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}