Taking a cue from other jurisdictions, Mountain View has added a new tool to its playbook\u00a0to try and block the possibility of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security setting up an immigration detention center in the city.<\/p>\n
The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved an \u201curgency ordinance\u201d that puts a temporary moratorium on the filing, acceptance, processing or approval of applications that seek to establish detention, custodial or processing facilities in Mountain View.<\/p>\n
The policy intends to \u201cpreserve the status quo\u201d and does not apply to routine law enforcement or other specified activities, according to the Oct. 13 staff report. That includes hospitals or medical facilities that temporarily limit a patient\u2019s movements, ordinary supervision at schools, childcare or residential care facilities and judicial hearing locations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is such a testament to the community that we\u2019re building,\u201d Councilmember Ellen Kamei said. \u201cItems like this can reaffirm and show our residents that we\u2019re with them and that we care.\u201d<\/p>\n
While effective immediately, the policy only lasts for 45 days, until Nov. 27. However, the council can extend it for an additional 22 months and 15 days, according to the staff report. In the interim, city staff plan to evaluate the potential impacts of detention centers and develop options to regulate them through land use restrictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a zoning change,\u201d Councilmember Pat Showalter said. \u201cThis is within our powers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mountain View\u2019s response to Trump administration<\/p>\n
Currently, there are no U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention or custodial centers in Mountain View. But city officials are not taking any chances and are looking to proactively close loopholes that could give ICE a foothold in the city.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Mountain View took action to push back against the Trump administration and\u00a0adopted a policy<\/a>\u00a0banning ICE from using city-owned or city-controlled property for civil immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n In June, Mountain View also\u00a0signed onto a legal brief<\/a>\u00a0supporting a lawsuit, filed by state Attorney General Rob Bonta and Santa Clara County, challenging the construction of an\u00a0ICE facility near Gilroy<\/a>. Last month, U.S. District Judge Eumi Lee ordered ICE to\u00a0temporarily halt construction<\/a>\u00a0at the site until an environmental review was completed.<\/p>\n Following the court ruling, Rep. Sam Liccardo<\/a>, who represents portions of Santa Clara County,\u00a0published a toolkit\u00a0to help local governments use zoning laws to make it harder for ICE<\/a> to construct or acquire future detention facilities.<\/p>\n Part of that work is explicitly defining detention, custodial and processing facilities in local zoning ordinances and specifying that they are not an allowable land use. Mountain View\u2019s adopted urgency ordinance defines those terms and conditions while also buying the city more time to develop a permanent policy.<\/p>\n Public response<\/p>\n The policy received support from more than a dozen residents who submitted letters and spoke at the meeting. They described the policy as a tool to protect the public safety, health and welfare of residents. They also expressed concern that ICE could be looking for other sites in the region to build a detention center, after the court ruling stymied the one near Gilroy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe threat is real and immediate,\u201d said Mountain View resident Melissa Dinwoodie, founder and president of Indivisible Palo Alto Plus. \u201cMore detention capacity means more arrests and harsher tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n Erik Poicon<\/a>, a city council candidate and Human Relations Committee member, stressed the importance of the policy for immigrant residents.<\/p>\n \u201cThey should know that we as a city see what they\u2019re going through and that their safety matters to us here in Mountain View,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n James Kuszmaul<\/a>, a city council candidate and Bicycle Pedestrian and Advisory Committee member, also voiced support for the policy.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to write to express my support for the urgency ordinance to help throw up legal barriers to any future attempts by the federal government to creating any form of detention facility in the city limits,\u201d he wrote in a letter to the council.<\/p>\n Other jurisdictions that have adopted similar policies include Gilroy<\/a> and San Jose<\/a> as well as San Mateo, Monterey and Napa counties, according to a press release from Liccardo\u2019s office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taking a cue from other jurisdictions, Mountain View has added a new tool to its playbook\u00a0to try and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[712,14,88,90,89],"class_list":["post-498601","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\/498601","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=498601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}