{"id":466147,"date":"2026-09-17T00:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T00:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/466147\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T00:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T00:12:10","slug":"ice-san-jose-is-first-bay-area-city-to-halt-new-private-detention-facilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/466147\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE: San Jose is first Bay Area city to halt new private detention facilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Days after a federal judge halted construction on a planned ICE center<\/a> in Gilroy, San Jose became the first city in the Bay Area to enact a temporary ban on private detention facilities, while San Mateo County extended its own moratorium.<\/p>\n

Sparked by fears that such facilities may be used to detain immigrants, San Jose is applying local planning rules and blocking the use of city property for new detention centers<\/a> \u2014 though the city has much less power to stop projects on federal or state land. The ICE facility in Gilroy was only discovered by local officials after work already had started last May.<\/p>\n

The council Tuesday unanimously passed a 45-day temporary moratorium on applications for private detention and custodial facilities, effective immediately. The council also approved Mayor Matt Mahan\u2019s memo directing the city attorney and manager to return at the end of the month with ways to extend the moratorium to public land to the fullest extent allowed under state and federal law.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal here is pretty simple,\u201d Mahan said. \u201cAs we\u2019ve seen down in Gilroy, these projects can be proposed quickly, and really without warning. And we have a responsibility as the local authority overseeing land use to protect our residents and exercise our responsibility to ensure human health and safety, and understand and mitigate environmental impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The temporary ban does not apply to state or county correctional facilities, juvenile rehabilitation centers, court-ordered mental health treatment, licensed residential care, school disciplinary spaces, and health quarantine centers. Currently, San Jose\u2019s zoning code does not define \u201cdetention and custodial facilities,\u201d but the 45-day pause gives the city time to create a definition and study potential environmental, traffic, utility, and safety impacts.<\/p>\n

The city already prohibits its property from being used to stage immigration enforcement operations.<\/p>\n

These local measures come a month after Bay Area leaders urged city and county governments to leverage their local authority to push back against immigration crackdowns<\/a>. San Jose and San Mateo County are among the first in the Bay Area to introduce such bans.<\/p>\n

San Mateo County acted almost immediately after the regional gathering by passing an initial 45-day freeze in August. On Tuesday, as San Jose enacted its new moratorium, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors unanimously extended its own measure through Aug. 24, 2027. Aside from immigration concerns, San Mateo cited the need to study impacts on local infrastructure, water supply, wastewater capacity, the power grid, and emergency response.<\/p>\n

According to the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, approximately 134,000 undocumented immigrants live in the county, 44% of whom were born in Mexico.<\/p>\n

Misrayn Mendoza with the organization Amigos de Guadalupe said passing the moratorium was the city\u2019s duty.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur city has the power, but most importantly, it has the duty to protect the safety of every person that lives here,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cEspecially now, where so many in our community, we live in fear. It says something simple but powerful \u2014 it says \u2018San Jose has your back\u2019\u00a0and that we can trust our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sean Baker, an East Side San Jose resident, welcomed the council\u2019s decision while advocating for a long-term extension.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not happy that it\u2019s temporary, but I\u2019m happy it\u2019s brought up,\u201d Baker said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a really good idea, and hopefully we can move forward and do something more permanent in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking on behalf of U.S. Rep. Sam Liccardo, District Director Raania Mohsen noted that the state has documented human rights concerns in ICE facilities across California, \u201cincluding overcrowding, inadequate medical care, unsanitary conditions, and a troubling increase in deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, Department of Homeland Security continues to rapidly expand detention and processing capacity nationwide, backed by more than $38 billion in funding,\u201d Mohsen said. \u201cAnd we have already seen efforts to expand that capacity here in our region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sierra Club conservation organizer Dashiell Leeds said the concerns extend beyond human rights to include environmental threats.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese facilities are also a threat to nature and open space like Coyote Valley,\u201d Leeds said. \u201cI\u2019d like to reiterate that these facilities could have severe consequences for wildlife, flood risk, water quality, and agriculture.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the council passed the measure, members of San Jose\u2019s Mexican American community were celebrating Mexican Independence Day outside<\/a>, a backdrop noted by Councilmembers Domingo Candelas and Peter Ortiz.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the celebration, I\u2019m supposed to be outside,\u201d Ortiz said, thanking the council and staff for their work. He praised the community members who \u201ccame out and continued to be engaged throughout the process,\u201d adding that \u201cit\u2019s important to have your voices heard\u201d and that the city has a \u201cresponsibility to protect the health and well-being of our residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis moratorium gives us time to do that work thoughtfully and responsibly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Days after a federal judge halted construction on a planned ICE center in Gilroy, San Jose became the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,7,409,2333,2871,14,1533,181,23,100,182,13,88,5500,90,89,183564,198,14368,200],"class_list":["post-466147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-city-politics","tag-editors-picks","tag-ice","tag-immigration","tag-keywee","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pm-report","tag-politics","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-city-council","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-mateo-county-times","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-santa-clara-county-politics","tag-south-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466147","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=466147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}