Following an hour of comments from protesters, the Marin County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday moved to limit the creation of federal detention centers on county land that might be used to facilitate arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The board approved an urgency ordinance that immediately enacts a 45-day moratorium that will temporarily prohibit the siting, construction, conversion, expansion or operation of new or expanded detention facilities, whether publicly or privately operated. The board could extend the moratorium for up to two years if it is determined necessary.

Similar moves have been enacted by the cities of Gilroy and Dublin, where there are federal plans to build detention centers. On Oct. 8, the Gilroy City Council approved a similar law with a moratorium that serves as the city’s opposition to the planned ICE facility on Holsclaw Road, just outside of Gilroy.

Aerial view of a location where an ICE facility is planned in unincorporated Santa Clara County outside Gilroy. (Google Earth)

“One of the issues of concern around that proposal is the adequacy of the septic system and the ability of Santa Clara County to ensure that key piece of infrastructure,” said Sarah Jones, director of the Marin County Community Development Agency, adding that Marin County has not yet received any applications for a detention facility.

Jones said the Marin ordinance would allow the county time to augment its local land-use policies to address environmental impacts, strains on water, sewer, energy, transportation and emergency services, zoning conflicts and the county’s existing housing shortage.

“We’re concerned that our codes would not adequately ensure that such intensive uses could be established without undermining or impacting surrounding properties or infrastructure, which would potentially bring harm to those who are held in such facilities or to the surrounding residents,” Jones said.

The Marin moratorium would apply only in areas where the county has land-use authority. It would not halt federal immigration enforcement or close existing detention facilities.

ICE enforcement persists despite county policy

Tuesday’s ordinance follows the board’s Oct. 20 adoption of a separate policy prohibiting county property, resources and confidential information from being used in connection with federal immigration enforcement. But that policy has not stopped ICE activities in Marin.

“More than a quarter of all ICE abductions in Marin County since March of 2025 have happened right here on county property in the parking lots and public lobbies of the Civic Center and jail,” said public commenter Tammy Edmonson. “We have begged this board for an ICE-free law.”

Edmonson and most of the public commenters insisted that an ICE-free law would provide stronger protections than a policy. San Mateo, San Francisco, Contra Costa and Sonoma counties have passed or are developing ordinances, while Marin, Monterey and Alameda counties have issued policies.

According to Marin County Executive Derek Johnson, unconstitutional enforcement by federal agencies has increased despite local actions, even in San Mateo County where a law is in place.

“We are one of 14 out of 58 counties that have adopted an ordinance or resolution,” said Johnson. “Yet, we have seen ramped up enforcement in and around California since late October and early November.”

Responding to recent reports of ICE agents allegedly using wearable electroshock devices or shock gloves, Johnson suggested that Attorney General Rob Bonta and the California Department of Justice will investigate. The state Legislature recently adopted Assembly Bill 2760, which prohibits all law enforcement agencies from using such devices beginning Jan. 1.

We are one of 14 out of 58 counties that have adopted an ordinance or resolution. Yet, we have seen ramped up enforcement in and around California since late October and early November.

Marin County Executive Derek Johnson

Johnson said that local governments are starting to work more cooperatively to stop unconstitutional enforcement by federal agencies. Supervisor Dennis Rodoni said that a regional lack of immigration detention facilities has hampered ICE operations.

“San Francisco, as a sanctuary county, has had 4,970 arrests in 2026, and Marin County has had approximately 70,” said Rodoni. “We know that if there’s a detention center in the Bay Area, those numbers are going to go much higher. That’s a deterrent for ICE, it has no detention center in the Bay Area.”

Johnson said Marin’s county counsel has issued a formal cease-and-desist letter to ICE for using county property in an unauthorized fashion following the October ban. Monterey and Alameda counties have issued similar letters to federal authorities in the past week.

“Who cares what the federal government says back to you?” said commenter and physician Philip Bickler. “It’s just beyond my belief that you can’t do something that is stronger. Your legal counsel needs to put together an ordinance that bans ICE from Marin.”

Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.