A RESOLUTION ADOPTING THE COUNTY OF ALAMEDA POLICY PROHIBITING
THE USE OF COUNTY-OWNED OR COUNTY-CONTROLLED PROPERTIES FOR
FEDERAL CIVIL IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITIES INCLUDING
STAGING AREAS, PROCESSING LOCATIONS,
OR OPERATIONS BASES
RESOLUTION NUMBER R-2026-47
WHEREAS, in 2016, the Board of Supervisors declared and affirmed that the County of Alameda is a Vernie Compy comic a singing is an and relige and am unties and rovide all residents with the knowledge and tools to thrive and fully participate in their communities; and WHEREAS, the County of Alameda is committed to ensuring the safety, dignity, and human rights of all our residents, regardless of race, religion, immigration status, or national origin; and WHEREAS, civil immigration enforcement activities have historically undermined community trust, spread fear, and created barriers to refugee and immigrant community members accessing essential County services, seeking basic health services, and reporting crime to local law enforcement, contributed to increased absenteeism from work, and disrupted schooling to the detriment of all County residents; and
WHEREAS, throughout the State and Nation there has been an increase of incidents of arrests of •both citizens and non-citizens by masked non-uniformed plain-clothed federal agents. Often these agents will not have visible names, officer identification numbers, or other individually identifying information on their person. This practice causes confusion, fear, and panic because community members have no way of knowing whether these agents are exercising legitimate authority or committing a crime thereby spreading distrust in law enforcement and harming public safety for all County residents; and
WHEREAS, the County of Alameda has long recognized that public safety is best achieved through trust and collaboration between residents and local government, not through the militarization or deputization of County resources in service of civil immigration enforcement; and WHEREAS, the Alameda County Sheriff's Office General Order 1.24 revised on October 1, 2025 describes the Alameda County Sheriff's Office (ACSO) Zero-Contact policy with immigration officials, except when a criminal warrant has been signed by a judge; and WHEREAS, in recent months, the County has observed across the country the commandeering of county, and city-owned facilities for immigration enforcement, an activity that is solely the responsibility of the 1 federal government; and
WHEREAS, the unauthorized use of County resources, property, or personnel to facilitate civil immigration enforcement actions ignores the intended purposes of such assets and interferes with and undermines the County's authority over, and its use of, its own limited resources, property, and personnel; and
WHEREAS, in this time of economic difficulties the County seeks to ensure that the County's resources, property, and personnel are used and expended only in furtherance of the objectives for which they are allocated and not used for the purposes of civil immigration enforcement which would divert County resources from programs beneficial to the County and its residents; and WHEREAS, the use of County resources, property, or personnel to facilitate civil immigration enforcement actions is inconsistent with, and undermines both the spirit and intent of, the County's Welcoming County policy; and
WHEREAS, such use of County resources further erodes trust between refugee and immigrant communities and local law enforcement, weakening the relationships that are essential to ensuring public safety; and
WHEREAS, consistent with Alameda County's long-standing commitment to equity, inclusion, public safety, and ensuring access to essential services for all residents regardless of immigration status, numerous jurisdictions across the United States have recently adopted, or are actively considering, ICE-Free Zones or similar policies to preserve trust between immigrant communities and local government and to prevent fear from deterring residents from accessing public services, including California jurisdictions such as Santa Clara County, the City and County of San Francisco, Los Angeles County, San Mateo County, and the City of Berkeley; Illinois jurisdictions including the City of Chicago and Cook County; the City of Boston, Massachusetts; New Jersey jurisdictions including Hoboken, Jersey City, Newark, and Paterson; New York jurisdictions including New York City and Rochester; and the cities of Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Denver, Colorado; and Albuquerque, New Mexico, reflecting a shared commitment to protecting civil rights, promoting community well-being, and ensuring effective and inclusive local governance.
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, THAT THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF THE COUNTY OF ALAMEDA, does hereby enact the following policy to prohibit the use of county- owned or county-controlled properties, for certain civil immigration enforcement activities.
Adopted by the Board of Supervisors of the County of Alameda, State of California, on January 29, 2026 by the following called vote:
2 AYES: Supervisors Fortunato Bas, Márquez, Miley, Tam & President Haubert - 5 NOES: None
EXCUSED: None
Navil A. Habert
David Haubert
President of the Board of Supervisors
County of Alameda, State of California
ATTEST: APPROVED AS TO FORM:
Clerk of the Board of Supervisors, Donna Ziegler, County Counsel County of Alameda
-Signed by:
By: By: Samantha Stonework-Hand
,Deputy - 8834795D66B440E...
Britney Davis Samantha Stonework-Hand
Clerk of the Board of Supervisors Assistant County Counsel
THE COUNTY OF ALAMEDA POLICY PROHIBITING THE USE OF COUNTY-
OWNED OR COUNTY-CONTROLLED PROPERTIES FOR FEDERAL CIVIL
IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITIES INCLUDING STAGING AREAS,
PROCESSING LOCATIONS, OR OPERATIONS BASES
Section 1. Prohibition on Use of County-owned or County-controlled properties.
No County-owned or County-controlled properties, including parking lots, vacant lots, garages, or nonpublic areas of buildings shall be used for staging areas, processing locations, or operations bases for the purpose of civil immigration enforcement.
Section 2: Definitions
"Staging area" means an area that is used to assemble, mobilize, and deploy vehicles, equipment, or materials, and related personnel, for the purpose of carrying out civil immigration enforcement operations.
3 "Processing location" means an area that is used for activities such as the identification, intake, processing of documentation, detention, arrest, or temporary holding of individuals for the purpose of carrying out civil immigration enforcement operations. "Operation base" means an area that is used to plan, coordinate, and execute civil immigration enforcement operations.
Section 3. Implementation and Enforcement
The County Administrator or her designee shall identify County-owned or County-controlled properties, including parking lots, vacant lots, garages, or nonpublic areas of buildings that could be used as staging areas, processing locations, or operations bases for the purpose of civil immigration enforcement: The County Administrator or her designee in consultation with the Office of the County Counsel, shall ensure that all County-owned and/or County-controlled parking lots, vacant lots, parking garages, and non-public areas of County-owned and/or County-controlled facilities have clear signage designating that the property is owned and/or controlled by the County and cannot be used for any purpose not expressly authorized by the County.
The County Administrator or her designee shall further ensure that, wherever appropriate, physical barriers such as locked gates are used to limit access to County-owned or County-controlled properties, including parking lots, vacant lots, garages, or nonpublic areas of buildings consistent with this order.
The County Administrator or her designee shall develop the procedures necessary to implement this policy and report progress at the following Alameda County Together for All Ad Hoc Committee meeting. These implementing procedures shall provide a clear reporting policy, consistent with the Response Plan for Immigration Enforcement Activity, for any County employee or contracted security guard who becomes aware of the attempted or actual use of a County-owned or County- controlled property, including a parking lot, vacant lot, garage, or nonpublic area of a building as a staging area, processing location, or operations base, or any other activity for the purpose of civil immigration enforcement. This reporting policy shall ensure that such incidents are communicated to the County Administrator's Office, County Counsel, and Public Safety Offices (Alameda County Sheriff's Office, District Attorney's Office, Public Defender's Office, and Probation Department) to help ensure due process and upholding of relevant laws.
Section 4. Identification of Federal Immigration Officers The County calls on federal immigration enforcement officers performing official business in the County to identify themselves as federal immigration enforcement officers and to make clear that 4 they are not officers, agents, or employees of the County, and to comply with all State and Federal legal protections afforded to County residents.
Section 5. Private Property Signage
The County Administrator's office shall design and print standardized signage that property owners and leaseholders may display to delineate the nonpublic areas of the property in which the property owner or leaseholder wishes to restrict activities related to civil immigration enforcement.
The County will make this signage available free of charge to property owners and leaseholders, including, but not limited to, businesses, medical providers, non-profits, and faith-based institutions, that voluntarily decide to so designate their property consistent with their authority over the property and who voluntarily request such signage from the County. Property owners and leaseholders that post this signage do so at their own discretion and assume any legal risk associated therewith.
County agencies and departments shall make available to the public "know your rights" materials regarding the rights of employees, tenants, and security staff regarding entry by federal agents.
Section 6. Scope.
This policy does not apply to property that is subject to an existing lease or concession agreement to which the County is a party. This policy is not intended to, and shall not be interpreted to, interfere with any such lease or agreement.
Nothing in this policy shall be construed as restricting or interfering with the execution of lawful judicial warrants or the enforcement of criminal law, nor as limiting the rights of any person or entity under state or federal law. Nothing in this policy shall be construed as contrary to or in defiance of any Federal or State Law.
This policy does not prohibit the lawful use of County-owned or County-controlled property for purposes other than a staging area, processing location, operations base, or any other activity for the purpose of civil immigration enforcement, nor does it restrict any person or entity from carrying out functions unrelated to those purposes on such property.
Section 7. Severability
If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase, or word of this policy or its application is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a decision of any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this policy. To this end, the provisions of this policy, and each of them, are severable. 5 Section 8. Effective Date.
This policy will take effect upon its execution and filing with the Clerk of the Board.