Alameda County to ICE: Stay away from Santa Rita Jail

DUBLIN, Calif. - Alameda County counsel has sent a cease-and-desist letter to ICE, telling federal agents to stay off Santa Rita Jail's property to conduct civil immigration enforcement activities. 

Cease-and-desist to ICE 

What we know:

Interim County Counsel Andrea Weddle sent the warning on Monday to Julio Hernandez, San Francisco's acting field office director for ICE in San Francisco.

Alameda County, like many others across the country, is an ICE-free zone, and this is possibly the first time a Bay Area county has tried to enforce this type of policy over the federal government. 

Coinciding with the letter, Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez put up a sign in front of Santa Rita Jail stating that "effective immediately," the lobby is restricted to people with appointments and those conducting official business only.

"As far as I know, this is the first time the county has had to take such an action," said Bob Britton, a steering committee member for the Interfaith Coalition for Justice in Our Jail and a rapid responder for Alameda County Immigration Legal Education Partnership. "But there have never been these blatant violations before."

Britton added that he thinks the county's bold action is "terrific."

"I'm surprised to see such a strong statement from county counsel," he said. "In the past, when the issue was before the board, the District Attorney, the sheriff and the county counsel were talking about how they can't do anything when push comes to shove, because the feds have superiority." 

Unclear if ICE will adhere to demand

What we don't know:

ICE representatives did not immediately respond for comment on whether they will adhere to this demand.

However, when Alameda County first enacted its ICE-free zone in February, the Department of Homeland Security called these policies "legally illiterate," as enforcing federal immigration laws is a "clear federal responsibility" under Article I, Article II and the Supremacy Clause.

In a legal battle between the county and federal government on this issue, David Levine, professor of law at UC College of the Law San Francisco, said the "county should win," since the issue is over county property. 

The only caveat, Levine acknowledged, is if an ICE agent had a proper judicial search warrant to be inside the jail. 

If ICE doesn't comply, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors would have to decide whether to sue the federal agency. 

ICE at Santa Rita twice in November

Dig deeper:

The cease-and-desist follows what Weddle described in her letter, where the sheriff's command staff at Santa Rita Jail have informed ICE personnel on "several occasions" to leave the jail property and "refrain from conducting civil enforcement activities in and around the jail and its parking lot, but ICE personnel have repeatedly ignored those instructions."

For example, she said that on Nov. 1, an ICE agent chased someone from the parking lot into the Santa Rita Jail lobby and "forcibly detained" him there. Then, on Nov. 8, two ICE agents "engaged in a physical confrontation" with members of the public in the jail's lobby." 

Weddle's letter continues: "The county thus demands that ICE and all persons acting on its behalf immediately cease and desist using any Santa Rita Jail facilities or other county-owned or controlled property for civil immigration enforcement activities." 

She cited the county's ICE-free zone policy that "expressly prohibits" the use of county property, including parking lots, vacant lots, garages or buildings as staging areas for operation bases for immigration detentions.

The county recognizes the lawful execution of judicial warrants or the enforcement of criminal law, Weddle acknowledged, but these exceptions do not authorize ICE to conduct a civil immigration enforcement operation on county property – that's the purview of the sheriff. 

Weddle noted in the letter that the parking lot and lobby at Santa Rita is very active with members of the visiting public, as well as deputies who carry guns. 

She said that deputies must be able to distinguish between legitimate jail operations and unauthorized activities, including outside law enforcement agencies.

She said that ICE agents, especially when they're fighting with members of the public at the jail, are creating "dangerous and unpredictable circumstances carrying an unacceptable risk of confusion and physical harm."

This type of conduct, Weddle wrote, could prompt an "immediate response" by sheriff's deputies who may "reasonably perceive the incident as a security threat requiring immediate intervention," which she said the county cannot allow. 

Similar attempts 

Others have tried similar moves to ward off immigration activities in California, though they have employed different tactics.

On Monday, Los Angeles police officers were caught on camera asking ICE agents for signed judicial warrants, and then were seen turning them away from the police department's metropolitan detention center. 

In a separate move earlier this year, Alameda County Judge Michael Markman, effectively banned armed immigration agents from the county's courthouses, by initiating a policy that prohibits any peace officer carrying a weapon from being inside a courthouse without official business. 

And in 2025, California Eastern District Acting US Attorney Michele Beckwith of Sacramento questioned Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino about what she called his unconstitutional immigration raids. President Trump fired her, and Gov. Gavin Newsom named her a Sacramento Superior Court judge last week.