Above photo: Residents gather during a community vigil in Pasadena, California, on June 30, 2025, to stand in solidarity with an immigrant family after ICE agents detained Rosalina Luna Vargas in front of her children days prior. Damian Dovarganes / AP.
When cities and counties work together to coordinate responses to immigration enforcement, we build a stronger network of protections and provide residents with more clarity.
Like many of you, I was grief-stricken watching the fallout of the Trump administration’s attack on Minnesota. Too many of our neighbors were left living in the kind of fear that quickly makes its way through school drop-off lines and courthouse hallways and can keep someone from going to work or even seeking medical care.
Yet we were also reminded of how neighbors can stand up for one another when communities are tested. From the Bay Area to Chicago, progressive local leaders are recognizing that no single city or county can meet this moment alone.
Throughout the country, we’ve seen the emergence of a more coordinated regional approach to immigrant justice with jurisdictions acting together to protect their residents. The result is a network of protections that are harder to undermine, offer consistency to match how interconnected our communities are, and provide a stronger shield against fear.
This idea has been a driving force in California. Last fall, Santa Clara County — the largest county in our region — took an early lead. Its Board of Supervisors directed staff to develop a comprehensive response to immigration enforcement, helping set a regional standard and nudging neighboring communities to action, including here in Alameda County.
Earlier this year, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a pair of measures to create coordinated rapid-response protections in the event of increased immigration enforcement actions and to designate ICE-Free Zones on county-controlled properties.
These policies are grounded in the simple principle that people who live, work, and raise families in our county — regardless of immigration status — should be able to access health care, courthouses, schools, and other essential services without fear.
These measures were framed both by the needs of our residents and the example of our neighbors. In fact, a representative from Santa Clara County joined the first of three public hearings on the policies, making clear both the urgency of the issue and the importance of acting together.
We also drew inspiration from leaders beyond our region. In Chicago, the mayor issued an executive order making clear that federal immigration authorities could not use city property for enforcement. In San Jose, city leaders adopted ICE-Free Zone protections. Los Angeles County and San Francisco similarly directed their departments to develop plans to protect residents and ensure continuity of services.
These efforts are part of a recognition that immigration enforcement and the fear it creates do not stop at jurisdictional boundaries. Our residents often live in one county, work in another, and rely on services across city lines. A fragmented response only deepens confusion and uncertainty.
When families hear reports about ICE activity in their neighborhoods, uncertainty takes hold. They begin to question if it’s safe to go to the clinic, report a crime, or show up for jury duty. If local governments fail to answer those questions, fear steps in. Our approach has been to remove ambiguity wherever we can. A regional approach provides even broader clarity and reinforces trust more widely.
By designating ICE-Free Zones, we’re ensuring our residents can trust that county property won’t be used as a staging ground for immigration enforcement and that accessing essential services won’t expose someone to the possibility of being detained. These local protections put our local values into practice.
By building a coordinated response plan — including rapid communication protocols, unified training for staff, and coordination among county departments and community partners — we’re reassuring our residents that their government will meet crisis with coordination.
We’ve paired these protective policies with real investments in immigrant communities. Since Trump took office, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors has approved $7 million to relaunch our rapid response hotline and significantly expand legal services and community outreach for the county’s immigrant and refugee residents. In immigration proceedings, where federal law does not guarantee the right to a public defender, legal representation can mean the difference between keeping a family together and deportation.
We are, however, clear-eyed about the limits of local action. We are dealing with the federal government, after all, and we have seen immigration enforcement carried out in lawless ways that raise serious concerns about accountability. We owe it to our residents to be transparent that local policy cannot fully insulate our communities from that reality. Despite our best efforts, residents might understandably remain uncertain about what’s to come.
But that is why regional action matters.
When counties and cities act together, we strengthen our collective ability to protect residents. We send a unified message that our communities will not be defined by fear, and that we will use every tool available to uphold access to public services, due process, and basic dignity. Here in the Bay Area, it has been powerful to stand alongside Santa Clara County, San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and others in advancing these protections. Together, we are building solidarity and using our local authority as a stabilizing force for our communities.
Across the country, more jurisdictions are exploring ways to ensure that public property is not used for immigration enforcement and that residents can safely access the services they depend on. We hope they’ll look to our policies in the Bay Area as a starting point.
This growing regional network of protection is essential. At its core, this is about safeguarding the social fabric that upholds our communities. Counties operate hospitals and clinics. We coordinate with our courthouses. We administer public benefits and behavioral health programs. When residents avoid these institutions out of fear, it undermines public safety, hurts our economic stability, and risks deepening public health crises. This makes protecting access to local government both an act of immigrant justice and an act of community preservation.
Local government is where policy becomes practice. As local officials, we see up close how national debates can shape everyday life, and our proximity comes with responsibility. When we act not just individually, but regionally, we make clear that protecting our communities is a shared responsibility.
That is how we keep our residents safe. That is how we keep families together. And that is how we ensure that justice begins at home.
