A group of protesters is urging Marin County supervisors to adopt an “ICE-Free Marin” ordinance that would bar the use of county property, resources and personnel for federal immigration enforcement.
It would also require public reporting on local immigration activity and mandate visible identification for law enforcement officers operating in the county.
The proposal, backed by the No ICE in Marin coalition of 14 community organizations led by the Marin County Democratic Socialists of America, was presented to Supervisor Eric Lucan on Tuesday before a crowd of public commenters filled the chambers, a tactic the coalition has used each month since December.
The ordinance would prohibit cooperation with federal immigration authorities except when required by a judicial warrant or court order. It also calls for a formal system to regularly disclose immigration enforcement activity to the Board of Supervisors and to the public and would ban officers from using facial coverings.
“We are trying to be prepared for a possible ICE invasion, you never know what the government’s going to come up with,” said Susan Malloy, a resident of Fairfax. “So, this ordinance would be a way to be prepared.”
In previous public meetings, the group has called for the county to stop accepting federal funds that reimburse the costs of detaining immigrants who have committed crimes, which the county has since removed from its annual budget.
Echoing California sanctuary law
The 2018 California Values Act, also known as the “sanctuary state law,” stipulates that no local resources can be used to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers or provide them with any information that is not already public record and/or available to them from the California Department of Justice. The state law also restricts local law enforcement from participating in civil immigration enforcement, including holding individuals beyond their release date or conducting immigration raids. But the law makes an exception for criminal violations.
The No ICE in Marin group has also called for the sheriff to adopt a zero-communication policy with federal employees.
“We are trying to be prepared for a possible ICE invasion, you never know what the government’s going to come up with. So, this ordinance would be a way to be prepared.”
Susan Malloy, Fairfax resident
In his spring newsletter issued April 2, Marin County Sheriff Jamie Scardina pushed back on eliminating all communication with ICE.
“I believe this would be unwise,” Scardina said, adding that his office’s communication is already limited to certain crimes.
“This limited communication is further limited to people incarcerated in our jail for violent and other serious crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, sexual assault against a minor, and those who commit domestic violence,” Scardina said.
Breaking down the numbers
The annual TRUTH Act Forum was held in March. That is a mandatory public meeting held by California local governing bodies to disclose and review how local law enforcement collaborated with federal immigration authorities in the previous year.
Scardina reported at the meeting that in 2025, 23 individuals were referred to ICE, compared with 14 in 2024. Of those arrests, only four were made by the Marin County Sheriff’s Office. Twelve were made by the San Rafael Police Department, with the rest of the arrests done by other regional law enforcement agencies.
Eliezer Margolis, a Mill Valley resident, referenced Scardina’s newsletter in his public statement on Tuesday.
“The California Values Act expressly reserves the right of local governing bodies, boards of supervisors, to enact greater restrictions on local law enforcement cooperation with immigration authorities than those imposed by state law,” said Margolis. “So, there you have it. You have your solution.”
National data collected by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research center at Syracuse University, shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement held 60,311 in ICE detention as of April 4 of this year and 70.8% of current detainees have no criminal convictions.
