South Bay Leaders Aim to Create ‘ICE-Free Zones’

South Bay leaders this week are considering new laws aiming to prevent immigration agents and other federal authorities from using public facilities like parking garages for their operations.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and the San José City Council’s Rules Committee are hearing early versions of local proposals that would make city- and county-owned parking lots, garages and land off-limits for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents working in the city.

“San José will not allow our resources to be weaponized against our very own residents,” City Councilmember Peter Ortiz said Tuesday during a press conference about the new policies.

Ortiz is leading the call for the new policy in the city, which is modeled after the “ICE Free Zone” executive order issued by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson earlier this month.

The local action comes just days after President Donald Trump said he is targeting San Francisco as the next city to deploy the National Guard. Local officials expect any guard deployment to target the broader Bay Area, including places like San José and Oakland, and the region has been bracing for ramped-up immigration enforcement efforts for months.

“That kind of rhetoric and that kind of federal overreach is exactly why this policy needs to be enforced and implemented,” Ortiz said. “We cannot wait until federal agents show up in our neighborhoods to finally decide that we should have protected our community spaces.”

While the new laws, if enacted, wouldn’t completely prevent federal immigration officers from carrying out their duties if they have a lawful warrant or court order for a person’s removal, the policies could make it harder for those authorities to find places to stage, process or surveil residents.

The county board unanimously supported advancing the proposal at its meeting on Tuesday afternoon, and it will return for a more formal vote at a future meeting. San José’s Rules Committee will consider the city proposal on Wednesday to weigh whether to send it to the full City Council for discussion.

For instance, the county policy would also include a directive to identify all county property that could potentially be used for immigration enforcement and ensure that “wherever appropriate, physical barriers such as locked gates are used to limit access” to those sites and structures.

County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas, who is leading the county effort, said the region’s elected officials are trying to use physical barriers and a patchwork of new laws to foil ongoing immigration enforcement tactics she described as “horrific.”

“It’s a little bump in the road. But if that bump in the road distracts them and keeps some from coming to our community, I think that’s helpful. So anything to irritate and to agitate those ICE agents, I think, is good,” Arenas told KQED.

The county policy would also call for signs to be posted on county properties, “declaring the restriction of immigration enforcement” there. The county would make similar signs available to private property and business owners for free if they want to display them.

Ortiz recently spearheaded a new proposed policy in San José that would ban all law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, from wearing masks or face coverings and would require clear agency affiliation on their uniforms. The council will consider the ordinance for a formal vote on Oct. 28.

He acknowledged it’s possible federal authorities may ignore these kinds of local ordinances, or that they may end up being challenged in court, but said it’s important to put them on the books nonetheless.

“I took the lead in authoring this policy to make sure San José sets the standard that our city and county stands firmly on the side of our residents, and not with federal intimidation, because that’s what this is,” he said.

Arenas said her late parents, who were immigrant farmworkers, often lived in fear of ICE knocking on their door, even when they were legal residents and later citizens.

“And it’s sad to say, but I’m relieved that they’re not here to see their worst fear,” Arenas said. “I’m relieved that they didn’t live to see the day Latinos were rounded up in such a savage and inhumane manner. I’m relieved that my parents didn’t live to see the day in which a president made this country believe in absurdities and then carry out monstrosities.”

Lucila Ortiz (no relation to Peter Ortiz), the political director of community and labor organization Working Partnerships USA, said she’s happy to see local leaders taking action proactively.

She noted federal budgets for immigration enforcement are increasing, the threat of the National Guard coming to the region, and influential figures like Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem saying ICE agents will be at the Super Bowl in Santa Clara next year.

“This is not a hypothetical. This is happening now,” she told KQED. “And so we can’t be quiet, we can’t be getting comfortable. We’ve got to do everything that we can, expect the worst and hope for the best.”