{"id":452639,"date":"2026-09-03T22:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T22:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/452639\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T22:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T22:42:09","slug":"santa-clara-county-schools-united-in-opposing-ice-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/452639\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Clara County schools united in opposing ICE facility"},"content":{"rendered":"

School districts across Santa Clara County are taking a stand against a proposed immigration enforcement facility in South County.<\/p>\n

A coalition of education and county leaders gathered Wednesday to denounce the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) center being planned in an unincorporated area just outside Gilroy. The group is sending a joint letter<\/a> \u2014 signed by more than 50 trustees across 27 local school districts \u2014 to county, state and federal leaders to advocate for keeping the facility out of the county to protect students and their families. Fears of ICE in the county have kept students from attending class<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Maimona Afzal Berta, a trustee on the Santa Clara County Board of Education, said 15 school districts in the county have adopted official resolutions in opposition to the proposed ICE facility, including San Jose Unified School District, East Side Union High School District and Alum Rock Union School District<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want our students (and) families to know that their school leaders are actively preparing through meetings, planning, training to ensure our schools remain safe and welcoming spaces,\u201d she said at the news conference. \u201cThe proposed ICE detention facility may be located near Gilroy, but the impact is felt across communities. This is about every child\u2019s right to learn safely.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight\u2019s exclusive reporting earlier this year uncovered plans for the ICE facility<\/a>, which includes detainee processing areas, as well as interview and holding rooms. The county and California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit<\/a> to stop the project in June. Work has been temporarily halted<\/a> at the site, with an initial court hearing set for Sept. 8. Court filings show the facility, described as an ICE office, would generally hold 10 detainees at any given time \u2014 though maximum capacity could change after the property\u2019s owner wraps up\u00a0construction work\u00a0at the site.<\/p>\n

\"\"District 1 Santa Clara County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas said politicians need to stop the ICE facility from being built. Photo by Lorraine Gabbert.<\/p>\n

District 1 Santa Clara County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas, who represents South County where the ICE facility is planned, said local schools are fighting for the future of their communities and refuse to be silenced by fear. She wants to help students and their parents feel more secure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important for us to use our political voices to continue to not only detain the detention facility construction, but to stop it,\u201d Arenas told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cWe\u2019re all working together. Hopefully it transmits a message of hope and support: We are with you. We\u2019re fighting for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

While mass immigration enforcement actions like the federal deployments in Los Angeles and Minneapolis, Minnesota haven\u2019t occurred in Santa Clara County, the region is one of the\u00a0most impacted areas for targeted ICE operations<\/a>, according to the Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network. Since the start of 2025 to June 2026, 232 county residents have been detained.<\/p>\n

Tuyen Fiack, board president of the Gilroy Unified School District, said of the county\u2019s 229,000 public school students, 165,000 are from mixed immigration households. That\u2019s 165,000 students who may experience the uncertainty and fear surrounding immigration enforcement, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen parents are afraid to attend a school meeting, participate in conferences, access services or engage with their child\u2019s school, that affects the entire educational community,\u201d she said at the news conference. \u201cWhen children begin to associate a community where they live with fear rather than safety, we have an obligation to pay attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parent Patricia Lopez\u2019s children attend school in East San Jose, but the family lives in Gilroy near the location of the proposed ICE facility. She said it\u2019s devastating to think about neighbors, friends and family living in fear.<\/p>\n

\u201cGilroy in so many ways has been a town shaped by immigrants and farmworkers, who do the back-breaking work in extreme conditions just to keep food on our tables,\u201d Lopez told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cI can\u2019t even begin to imagine how it may feel driving out of my home and seeing ICE vehicles in my community. I can\u2019t imagine the fear and uncertainty for so many families. It\u2019s just sad and heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"In-line<\/a><\/p>\n

Fiack said school boards across Santa Clara County recognize that while an ICE facility might physically be located in one community, its impact would reach far beyond one city or school district.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur communities are interconnected and so are our responsibilities to our young people,\u201d she said. \u201cOur students come first, our families belong here. Regardless of their immigration status, every child deserves to walk into their classroom focused on learning and dreaming about their future, not fearing for their family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contact Lorraine Gabbert at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"School districts across Santa Clara County are taking a stand against a proposed immigration enforcement facility in South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[712,14,88,90,89,3055],"class_list":["post-452639","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","tag-south-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452639","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=452639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}