Monterey County, City Of San Jose Ban Immigration Detention Facilities
By Bay City News Service
Originally published in SF Gate
Monterey County and the city of San Jose both passed moratoriums Tuesday on the construction of immigration detention facilities.
The Monterey County Board of Supervisors also passed a resolution further outlining restrictions on federal immigration authorities' use of county-owned property for enforcement.
Both jurisdictions moved to prohibit detention centers after intentions for one in Santa Clara County near Gilroy were revealed by local reporting earlier this year. That plan by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is on pause after the state and county sued under environmental grounds.
Both jurisdictions targeted zoning regulations as a way to make the temporary bans permanent, with the ordinances prohibiting any land use changes that would allow such projects to be approved. Both cited water and sewage concerns as practical hurdles to detention center construction.
Specifically, the temporary moratorium would prohibit the siting, construction, conversion, or operation of new and expanded detention and correctional facilities in the unincorporated areas of the county, according to Monterey County's ordinance.
San Jose's moratorium uses similar language to prohibit the "filing, acceptance, processing, or approvals of applications for the establishment, expansion, or change of use for detention and custodial facility on private property."
Both moratoriums were passed as 45-day interim ordinances, which both bodies indicated would be extended for the maximum 22.5 months allowed under state law before they expire. During that extension, long-term ordinances would be crafted that would outline land use policies that would give the city and county more discretion to reject applications for detention centers.
Monterey County Supervisor Kate Daniels also asked for language to be included in the county's long-term moratorium that said the detention centers are against the community's values.
Supervisor Luis Alejo said the nearby facility that was planned near Gilroy sparked fear in the county, which has a large immigrant population that forms the backbone of its massive agricultural sector.
"We knew that back in May, that a facility in our neighboring Santa Clara County that the fear and anxiety that such a detention facility creates, it's not confined to the walls of that facility, it's not confined to Santa Clara County," Alejo said during the board's meeting. "In fact, fear spread throughout our entire region."
While California's sanctuary policies already largely prohibit the use of public property for immigration enforcement, Monterey County joined several cities and counties that have further articulated through local policy directives that parks and parking lots are not permitted to be used as staging grounds for U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement or any other agency.
The planned facility in unincorporated Santa Clara County was unknown to local officials until demolition began on a property on Holsclaw Road in May. Local reporting traced the lease of the property by its owner to a contract with the U.S. General Services Administration, which leases property for the federal government.
Spokespeople for ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security repeatedly denied there were any plans for a detention center, before the lawsuit filed by the state and county revealed the agency had indeed planned to construct a facility for ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations division, according to the suit.
A federal judge ruled in early September that DHS had not adequately conducted environmental reviews required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
The area's congressional representatives called on local officials in the surrounding Bay Area and Central Coast to enact similar bans to ensure no detention facilities are built in the region.
U.S. Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-San Jose, predicted ICE and DHS would look elsewhere after being stymied by the state and county's lawsuit and said local governments should be ready.
"With a federal judge blocking a potential ICE facility at Gilroy, we expect the Department of Homeland Security will accelerate its search for new sites," he said in a statement. "By advancing these ordinances, the City of San Jose and Monterey County will make it far more difficult for DHS to convert large industrial and commercial sites for ICE detention centers, supporting our communities' safety and public health."