The attorney for Monterey County sent a cease-and-desist notice to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thursday alleging federal agents are unlawfully using county property to carry out U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement actions.
County Counsel Susan Blitch penned a letter to the ICE field office in San Francisco alleging the agency has been using county-owned parking lots and violating parking restrictions, blocking ingress and egress into county facilities, and “operating in an unsafe manner” on county property.
Blitch said ICE vehicles have been seen this week and last week at the Natividad Medical Center campus, the county jail, a soccer complex, and at juvenile hall.
“The interruption of services to the public seeking medical care is especially troubling,” she wrote.
Blitch alleges ICE vehicles have parked in red zones, blocked driveways, used county parking lots as staging areas for immigration enforcement, and operated without “due regard for the safety of pedestrians and others,” saying ICE vehicles showed “willful and wanton disregard” for people’s safety.
ICE activity around the jail led to its three-hour lockdown on Oct. 27.
In September, the county Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to bar ICE from using county property for civil immigration enforcement.
On Thursday, Supervisor Wendy Root Askew posted the attorney’s letter on social media and praised it.
“Today I can say with confidence that the county is doing everything in our power to de-escalate the dangerous situation that immigration agents are creating in our community,” Askew wrote on Facebook.
The supervisors also approved a temporary 45-day moratorium beginning in late September banning the construction or expansion of ICE detention facilities on unincorporated county land.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
