Santa Clara County Leaders Say They'll Fight Planned ICE Facility in Gilroy | KQED

"Elected leaders and community members in Santa Clara County said they weren't notified in January 2025 when the federal government leased a swath of unincorporated land near Gilroy with the intent to build a detention center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. " The move to build a detention center in unincorporated Gilroy is an attack on the immigrant community, and it's an attack on Santa Clara County," Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti said. He added that his office is coordinating with state Attorney General Rob Bonta as it prepares a legal defense to block the detention center."

""We want to work with community leaders," Mullin added. "We want to be good partners." Santa Clara County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas, whose district includes the planned detention center, said she hasn't personally seen the Trump administration work with her community. "I don't know where working with our community is coming from when you're actually targeting our community as scapegoats and rounding us up in this way," Arenas said, adding that her district includes large populations of immigrant farmworkers."

""To our knowledge, there's been no effort whatsoever to notice the county or any other local government that we're aware of," LoPresti said. "We want to work with community leaders," Mullin added. "We want to be good partners." Zoning laws in the area do not allow for a detention center, he said. "To our knowledge, there's been no effort whatsoever to notice the county or any other local government that we're aware of," LoPresti said."

Elected leaders and community members in Santa Clara County said they were not notified in January 2025 when the federal government leased unincorporated land near Gilroy to build a detention center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. County Counsel Tony LoPresti said the plan is an attack on the immigrant community and on the county, and he said his office is coordinating with state Attorney General Rob Bonta to prepare a legal defense to block the detention center. He said zoning laws in the area do not allow a detention center and that there had been no effort to notify the county or other local governments. Supervisor Sylvia Arenas said she has not seen the administration work with the community and criticized the targeting of immigrant residents. Opponents said increased immigration enforcement was already harming the community and that an additional ICE facility would worsen conditions.

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