A proposed ban on federal immigration agents from using county property and a coordinated response plan will be considered by the Board of Supervisors later this month.
by Roselyn RomeroJan. 16, 2026 (Berkeleyside.org)
While Alameda County considers itself a sanctuary for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, it does not currently have rules restricting federal immigration agents from using county-owned property for enforcement operations.
Now, an Alameda County Board of Supervisors committee is making moves to change that.
At Thursday’s meeting of the Alameda County Together for All ad hoc committee, Supervisors Nikki Fortunato Bas and Elisa Márquez approved proposals to carve out “ICE-free zones” at all county-owned facilities and to implement a county-wide coordinated response plan for when federal immigration enforcement officers conduct operations locally.
The proposals will be considered and voted on by the full Board of Supervisors on Jan. 27.
“Our goal here is simple: Make health care, courts, and other county services accessible to all,” Bas, who chairs the ad hoc committee, said during the meeting at the Alameda County Administration Building in Oakland.
County ICE-free zones would include signage, physical barriers where appropriate, and protocols for enforcement. Federal immigration agents would also be prohibited from using county-controlled parking lots, vacant lots, garages, and areas in county-owned buildings not open to the public.
Bas and Márquez also directed the county administrator to create a response plan for immigration enforcement activity that would involve reporting incidents to the Alameda County Immigration Legal Education Partnership, training county staff, protecting hospitals and health care facilities, and more.
The committee heard from several county public safety leaders, including the district attorney, the public defender, the sheriff, and the probation chief.
“We are in a state of emergency,” Public Defender Brendon Woods told the committee. Since September, he said, at least six of his office’s clients have been arrested by ICE officers inside or near courthouses.
“These resolutions bring us closer to providing the basic protections that people are looking to us to provide,” added Woods, whose office houses an Immigration Unit representing immigrants facing deportation or at risk of deportation.
Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez said she has made it clear to federal immigration enforcement agencies that she will not accept civil detainers, requests to hold a person at Santa Rita Jail until they can be transferred to an immigration detention facility, and that her deputies will not cooperate with ICE on civil immigration matters.
With federal immigration agents often driving unmarked vehicles or wearing plainclothes as part of their controversial tactics, Sanchez said community members can call the police if they see someone in plainclothes making an arrest to verify whether it is a law enforcement officer.
“How federal officers are taking that position to not be clearly marked is beyond me,” Sanchez said.
Probation Chief Brian Ford said his department has a “zero-tolerance policy” on ICE cooperation, citing zero ICE detainers, holds, transfers, interviews, or youth-related inquiries since 2022.
The proposals come after other jurisdictions across the U.S. have passed policies barring federal agents from using public spaces for civil immigration enforcement activities. In October, Chicago declared city-owned properties “ICE-free zones.” And San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose, Santa Clara, and other cities and counties have proposed or approved similar ordinances.
Valarie Bachelor, vice president of the Oakland Unified School Board, spoke during public comment in support of both policies. “For many of our immigrant families, county buildings are not an option — they are a necessity,” she said. “They are there to support folks in finding housing, health care, food assistance services, and library books.”
Susan Buensuceso, an organizer for Filipino Advocates for Justice, an Oakland-based nonprofit, also supported the plans, saying her organization works with Filipino caregivers, many of whom are immigrants.
“Filipino caregivers have been providing a very crucial service to residents of Alameda County, and it is extremely sad that they have to hide sometimes,” Buensuceso said. “Some of them cannot go out of the care homes they work at for fear of ICE presence.”
Several speakers also urged the committee to consider barring the federal government from transforming the shuttered women’s prison in Dublin into an immigration detention facility. Kimberly Gasaway, director of the county’s General Services Agency, which manages all county-owned land and properties, told Bas and Márquez that the former FCI Dublin site is federally owned, meaning the county has no authority over how it is used.
Federal immigration agents have come to Oakland in recent years to question and detain families and individuals in targeted enforcement activities. And last October, the Trump administration planned a crackdown and deployed over 100 Customs and Border Protection agents to Coast Guard Island bordering Oakland. Although the operation was called off, this wasn’t before federal law enforcement shot protesters with chemical irritants, and one person, in a separate incident, was shot while backing a truck up in the direction of officers. A bystander was also wounded in that incident.
During the board’s committee meeting, residents and local public safety leaders expressed concern over the fatal shootings of unarmed civilians Renee Good and Keith Porter by ICE officers in Minneapolis and Los Angeles, respectively, and whether something like that could happen locally.
“I ask myself, who is going to be next? Is somebody here in this room going to be next? Am I going to be next?” said Diego Villegas Aguilar, an organizer with Trabajadores Unidos Workers United, during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Under the new federal budget, ICE will receive an additional $75 billion over four years, a more than 300% increase in enforcement and detention capacity, according to Bas. The budget makes ICE the most well-funded federal law enforcement agency in U.S. history.
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Roselyn Romero covers public safety for The Oaklandside. She was previously The Oaklandside’s small business reporter as a 2023-24 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism Fellow. Before joining the team,… More by Roselyn Romero
Did you clowns say Keith Porter was unarmed?
It’s astounding how stupid you people are