Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Don’t Care if ICE Takes People at the Jails
Editor's Note: ICE has been showing up and taking people at the county jails. At the same time, the Board of Supervisors have been vocal in their opposition of ICE operating in Santa Clara County. So why are they silent and unresponsive to ICE's presence at the jails?
On the morning of October 23, 2026, armed and masked ICE agents walked in and out of the Santa Clara County Elmwood Jail like they owned it. They parked their SUV’s in the handicap spots as they directly faced the front doors of the facility. They loitered inside the lobby for hours, waiting, presumably, for a target of theirs to be released from the jail. Rapid Response legal observers were there, De-Bug organizers were there, as ICE agents took video and photos of those who were their to monitor them while they posted up by the front doors. Once the local NBC cameras showed up to cover their presence and the growing number of community members arriving, the agents quickly departed. A group of roughly ten people - who would have otherwise have walked into an ICE trap - were released just minutes after the ICE SUV’s had sped off. Though most people don’t choose to hang around once finally being released from jail, a number of those who just got out said they didn’t want to exit the building knowing ICE may be waiting for them somewhere outside.
By this time the otherwise empty area in front of Elmwood was active with people - legal observers scanning the parking lot for ICE vehicles, Rapid Response volunteers, media outlets, defense attorneys concerned about their clients, and families arriving to pick up their loved ones to get them out of the danger zone of ICE detention.
Despite being notified during the time of ICE’s occupation at Elmwood - the only people who were reached out to that did not send any representation were the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.
For over a year now ICE has been detaining people from this jail, well over 60 people since last June. And while this Board of Supervisors has taken on ICE on several fronts, the one group of people they have refused to protect from ICE detentions are those being taken at the jails. They are their immigrant constituents - mothers, fathers, living and working in the county - but they are the incarcerated, and as such, have become decidedly expendable to them.
This Board of Supervisors has been declarative about their opposition to ICE in their rhetoric, as well as some of their policies. They have filed litigation to prevent the construction of an ICE facility in south county, they committed funding to immigration attorneys, and last year passed a plan for “ICE Free Zones.” In the press conference announcing the ICE Free Zones, Supervisor Arenas stated, “"Let us be clear, ICE is not welcome on our county facilities and controlled lands." When fears of an ICE surge mounted earlier this year around large sporting events like the Super Bowl and World Cup, Supervisor Lee said, “If anyone comes into our county masked, spreading terror, breaking laws or threatening our residents, they will be arrested by our sheriff deputies and police officers.” And in reference to a statewide effort to limit the construction of ICE detention centers the board endorsed, Supervisor Doung said that she “...will not stand by while corporations profit from tearing immigrant communities apart by wrongfully detaining our families and neighbors.” And that, “In Santa Clara County, we are using every tool at our disposal and working with partners at every level to fight the expansion of ICE detention.”
All of the current Board of Supervisors have made similar public remarks over the past two years – that they will use their elected positions to protect immigrant communities in Santa Clara County.
So why would the Board of Supervisors that have been so vocal in their opposition about ICE be non-responsive when confronted with the evidence of prolonged and consistent presence of ICE at the jails? And not only ICE agents being seen at the jails, but regular ICE detentions confirmed by the sheriff, documented in the media? The practice of ICE detentions at the jail has become so common, in response to the October 23rd media coverage of ICE at Elmwood, the sheriff’s office put out a social media post that said, “We want to reassure our community that this is not new or unusual.” The jails have been ground zero for ICE detentions in Santa Clara County.
The answer may be found in a sentiment shared by Supervisor Abe-Koga made from the dias when they discussed the Ice Free Zones. Before casting her vote she said, “I just want to make sure we’re not doing anything to put a target on us.”
Underneath every effort and initiative when taking on ICE and the federal administration, county leadership is asking one fundamental question - is this fight worth it? Concern of being a “target” is part of the calculus to make such a decision. In an Q and A style interview from February about the county’s approach to challenging ICE, Supervisor Ellenberg said, "In some ways, we create a bigger target for our community by being so vocally in opposition, but frankly, we’re already a target. We’re California, we’re Santa Clara County. We have a reputation for being very progressive, very focused on constitutional rights and freedoms.”
So when alarms sound about ICE taking incarcerated community members - who have the least political capital in the county - that is a segment of the community that the board will allow to be sacrificed. The incarcerated, those who have been accused of crimes, are not worth fighting for, not worth bringing on a response of the federal administration. So, when ICE comes to the jails, the Board of Supervisors are silent. When ICE takes community members from the jail, the Board of Supervisors do nothing.
Yet there is a knowing of what their lack of action does. In that same interview, Supervisor Ellenberg identified the cost of acquiescing to ICE. She said, "The cost of doing nothing, though, is that ICE gets bolder and bolder and will act with more and more impunity if nobody is stopping them.”
The supervisor’s insight was correct. Two days after ICE came to Elmwood, they showed up in force at the Main Jail facility.
(Read the account of ICE observations at the Elmwood facility.)
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