San Mateo County moves to restrict immigration detention facilities
Originally published in the San Mateo Daily Journal
By Ana Mata
San Mateo County is looking to restrict the development of any immigration detention facility in unincorporated areas, with a unanimous vote by the Board of Supervisors to draft an emergency moratorium against such centers and a longer term plan to ensure local regulation.
In partnership with U.S. Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-San Jose, the Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution directing county staff to work and develop an ordinance that prohibits, restricts and regulates the siting and operation of detention facilities.
The urgency to pass such an ordinance comes at the heels of two detention facility proposals in the Bay Area, one in unincorporated Santa Clara County near Gilroy and one in Dublin.
Progress on these facilities have been delayed due to political pressures and legal challenges — which means the time for other jurisdictions to act is now to prevent such a development or at least make sure land use regulations to enhance public safety are upheld, Liccardo said.
“We know that delay is something that [the Department of Homeland Security] has typically responded to by looking for other sites,” Liccardo said. “They have $38 billion in last year’s budget to go find other sites and pay other landowners whatever they want to be able to build other facilities, so we expect they’ll be looking at other locations.”
Staff will develop an ordinance that establishes zoning regulations preventing a detention facility, or other institutional land use, from being developed in unincorporated San Mateo County that could cause significant environmental impacts, strains on local infrastructure, land use conflicts or other negative impacts on the public’s health, safety and well-being.
While the ordinance is developed and time passes before it may ultimately be enacted, an emergency moratorium on the development of any detention facility will be brought back to supervisors at their next meeting, Aug. 25, to approve in the meantime.
Local jurisdictions cannot outright prohibit detention centers or federal activity, but they do have authority to prohibit unsafe facilities, limit where they can be located and impose a variety of conditions to ensure public health. Liccardo is championing similar ordinances through his congressional district, which extends along the San Mateo County coast and into areas of San Jose.
“These aren’t just simply discussions about policy, these are discussions about how people will be treated and live in such a facility should they end up in one,” Supervisor Ray Mueller said.
Board President Noelia Corzo said it was valuable to be proactive about the matter, and “to make sure we’re playing offense and not just defense in this county.”
“This is the type of situation that demands we use every single tool at our disposal,” Corzo said.
Board members thanked Liccardo for including San Mateo County in his efforts to dilute progress on developments in the Bay Area, and Supervisor Jackie Speier named the looming threat from the federal government under President Donald Trump.
“In a setting today, where the administration is more than antagonistic, the Department of Justice is willing to trample on local state and constitutional law, you have taken your role as congressman to find a way to serve your district and your counties that will provide the protection necessary and at least slow down their efforts to trample, once again, on all of these rights,” Speier said.
There are no large detention facilities in Northern California, but there are seven in Southern California, Liccardo said. There have been six deaths across those seven facilities in just half a year, he said.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has proposed redeveloping a 25-acre property in unincorporated Santa Clara County near Gilroy to make an office for ICE operations and holding rooms for detainees, according to a lawsuit by Santa Clara County and the state.
The suit alleges the site maintains hazardous material from its recent agricultural uses, and that the federal government started developing the site in secret, which may violate intergovernmental cooperation laws.
Construction of the site outside Gilroy has been on pause since July until at least Sept. 9, according to Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office.