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Saying they were spurred by the shooting of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis, an Alameda County Board of Supervisors committee has passed two proposals to establish a Bay Area regional response in the event that federal immigration agents launch a new operation locally.
“We have to move very quickly,” Alameda County District 5 Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas told Bay Area News Group before the Board of Supervisors meeting on Thursday before the Together For All Committee vote. “Since the Minneapolis killing – more than ever – it is incredibly dangerous for people to enter the immigration system.”
During a surge of immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot Minneapolis resident Renee Good in the head while she was driving away. Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was posthumously labeled as a “domestic terrorist” by Vice President JD Vance and Department of Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem, whose defense of Ross’ actions ignited furor among Minnesota residents who have taken to the streets in protest.
The incident evoked memories of last October when Border Patrol agents launched an operation in the Bay Area that led to a protest at the entrance to Coast Guard Island. During the standoff, a U-Haul truck driven by Bella Thompson reversed and accelerated toward officers. Thompson was shot by federal officers before she could strike them and was charged with one count of assault of a federal officer. She was released on bail in November and remanded to her parents in Southern California while attending a mental health program pending trial.
In the lead-up to the October incident, Bas said she had drafted a proposal to strengthen the county’s response to immigration enforcement operations. The first of these proposals calls for a coordinated regional response to federal immigration raids, following the example set by Santa Clara County, with public outreach plans and staff trainings on how to protect residents accessing the county’s social services, courts and health care facilities.
The second proposal establishes that ICE and other immigration authorities are banned from county-owned buildings. In addition, the proposal demands that federal immigration officers identify themselves and clarify they are not county employees.
“We’re working to make sure that our communities are informed, prepared and coordinated in protecting the critical health programs and social services as well as constitutional rights that we should all be afforded,” Bas said at Thursday’s committee meeting.
Bas and District 2 Supervisor Elisa Marquez, the vice chair of the ACT All Committee, met with District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson, Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez, Public Defender Brendan Woods, Probation Chief Brian Ford and General Services Agency Director Kimberley Gassaway to discuss how each of their respective agencies would implement the proposed policies.
Sanchez noted that ICE agents’ policies are unorthodox among law enforcement professionals.
“Any professional law enforcement agency understands and knows the need to be clearly marked and identified as a law enforcement officer. It is a safety issue,” Sanchez said. “The sheriff’s office has very clear directives on how we do or do not communicate with ICE. I’ve made it very clear that we do not accept civil detainers at our facility at the jail, we only accept criminal warrants for people.”
Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods said he had appealed to the county since last summer about creating policies that would protect the county’s vulnerable communities against ICE. He made specific reference to ICE agents “snatching” people off the street and putting them into vans, and expressed concern about due process and judicial fairness in immigration courts after President Donald Trump fired more than 100 judges and replaced them with Trump-approved successors.
“We are in a state of emergency. In my 55 years on this earth, I cannot recall more dangerous time in our nation’s history,” said Woods. “Our civil liberties are being trampled on a daily basis. Every day we hear new stories of immigration officers descending on our communities with weapons and masks and unmarked vehicles. They snatch people off the street, they break car windows, they pepper spray peaceful protesters.”
The proposals will now head to the full Board of Supervisors for final approval.
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Chase Hunter
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