Protesters at a Contra Costa County courthouse in Martinez rallied against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who are using a county parking lot to stage operations.

ICE has been using the lot adjacent to the A.F. Bray Courthouse and Martinez Detention Facility, and multiple people have been detained there, said Hernan Soto, an organizer with the Contra Costa Immigrant Rights Alliance, speaking at the protest on Thursday.

“We’re here to let the people and the county know that we know what’s going on,” he said.

ICE’s use of county property is “unacceptable,” he said, but Contra Costa doesn’t prohibit county cooperation with ICE — though immigrant rights activities have called for it for more than a year.

“While other counties are strengthening their policies and issuing cease-and-desist orders to ICE, Contra Costa remains silent,” Soto said.

County policy debate

At a County Board meeting in September, supervisors Shanelle Scales-Preston and John Gioia voted to put forward an ordinance that would require its staff to adhere to rules around interacting with ICE and the agency’s use of county-run facilities.

But Preston and Gioia were outvoted by Candace Andersen, Diane Burgis and Ken Carlson, who opted for a policy — a non-binding guideline — rather than an ordinance, which is a legally binding local law.

The board will vote Tuesday on the proposed policy for responding to Immigration Issues, which is intended to guide county staff on their rights interacting with immigration officers.

In recent weeks, ICE has made itself known in several parts of the county, particularly in an area of Concord known as Monument Corridor, according to Julia Quintero of Monument Impact, a nonprofit organization that serves low-income families.

“The Monument is the holder of most of the immigrant community. We’ve seen a huge increase in the last two weeks.”

— Julia Quintero, Monument Impact, a nonprofit serving low-income families.

“The Monument is the holder of most of the immigrant community,” Quintero said at the protest. “We’ve seen a huge increase in the last two weeks,” she said, referring to ICE activity in the neighborhood.

“Monument is a really bustling part of the city, but right now, nobody’s out,” she said. “It automatically puts fear in people’s minds.”

Most of ICE arrests have targeted men — typically fathers – on their way to work in the morning, Quintero said.