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Gilroy ICE facility blocked after sparking 'wave of fear' among residents · Best of: Features

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  Gilroy Ice facility blocked after sparking a wave of fear among residents.
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  Written by Olivia Hebert This article is being read by an automated
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  voice, generated by Everlet. Rebecca Armanderas first heard rumblings of a
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  new immigration and customs enforcement facility outside her hometown of Gilroy in
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  late spring, when a local real estate agent began bragging about selling
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  a property to the Department of Homeland Security. Within weeks, public records
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  and the detailed blueprints revealed plans for an ICE facility at seven
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  thousand two hundred and forty Holsklaw Road on unincorporated agricultural land just
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  outside Gilroy with detainee processing areas, interview rooms, and holding cells. Court
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  records say the holding rooms could accommodate as many as one hundred
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  and fifty detainees, though ICE has disputed that estimate. It kind of
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  felt like UFO landed in our community, Armanderas, a longtime community and
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  union organizer who co-founded the Gilroy Advocacy Group Keras told SF Gate,
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  There was a whole wave of fear. Gilroy is a city with
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  deep ties to agriculture, an annual garlic festival, and generations of immigrant
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  and farm worker families. Armandarys said some families who had lived there
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  for decades began coming to Karas for answers. Folks that come to
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  brag about how well their kids are doing in school and inviting
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  us to their child's graduations were now asking us where they should
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  be moving to, she said. It's really heartbreaking. The mounting alarm gave
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  way to a contentious legal battle spearheaded by California Attorney General Rob
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  Bonta and Santa Clara County Counsel Tony Lopresti, seeking to stop the
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  construction and eventual operation of the facility. They have to do it
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  in a manner that complies with the law, Lopesti told S. F.
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  Gate. They can't just claim some weird Trumpian exemption. No one is
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  above the law. On june tenth, the State and County sued ICE,
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  DHS, the General Services Administration, and the project's private developer, Elmwood Capital
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  Group, alleging the project advanced without required environmental review or consultation with
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  state and local officials. The lawsuit also brought claim under federal Immigration
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  and Administrative Law in California's Williamson Act, which has restricted the property
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  to agricultural uses since nineteen sixty seven. U.S. District Judge Yumi K.
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  Lee granted California and Santa Clara County a preliminary injunction Friday, finding
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  the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claim that federal officials
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  failed to conduct the environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy
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  Act. The
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  environmental dispute centers in part on the twenty four point five acre
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  Holsklaw property's septic capacity, its instances of hazardous material mismanagement,
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  and potential effects of the facility's construction on protected species. Agricultural research
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  companies operated there from nineteen ninety three to twenty twenty three and
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  handled pesticides, solvents, and other hazardous materials, according to the court. The
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  state and county contend construction could disturb remaining contaminants, and that the
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  existing septic system may be inadequate for the proposed use, potentially sending
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  wastewater toward nearby Lagos Creek. The creek directly borders the property and
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  is designated critical habitat for threatened South Central California coast steelhead, according
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  to the lawsuit. This is a location with really serious problems, Lepresti
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  told S. F. Gate. I think those problems might be incurable. Federal
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  planning for an ICE facility in the area dates to twenty twenty.
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  GSA revived the effort in twenty twenty four and leased the property
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  in january twenty twenty five. Development began in April according to them,
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  complaint, and investigators later documented new privacy fence, construction equipment, debris, and
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  dismantled greenhouses. Work halted during the summer pending Lee's ruling. Despite the
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  project's location and the ensuing litigation being laid out in public record,
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  ICE declined to acknowledge the Gilroy site in a statement to S.
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  F. Gate. ICE will not confirm office locations as our officers are
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  facing a coordinated campaign of violence against them, DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary
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  for Public Affairs, Chandler Rebel, told S. F. Gate in an email.
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  Rebel defended the property as a result of ICE workforce expansion under
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  President Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill, which allocated nearly thirty billion dollars
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  for ICE hiring, training, and immigration detention capacity. We have an additional
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  twelve thousand ICE officers and agents on the ground across the country,
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  Rebel said. That's a one hundred and twenty percent increase in our
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  workforce. SF Gate could not independently verify those figures. State and county
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  officials said ICE need for more facilities does not exempt the agency
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  from complying with the law. No one is above the law, not
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  even the Federal Government, Bonta said in a statement following Lee's ruling.
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  This ruling sends a clear message. California will hold the Federal Government
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  accountable and protect our communities, our environment, and the rule of law.
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  They messed with the wrong county. In Gilroy and surrounding communities, the
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  project has fueled months of organized opposition. Armandara's said organizers from Watsonville,
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  Hollister, Santa Cruz, Salinas and elsewhere have joined labor, immigrant rights and
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  environmental groups in demonstration and other efforts against the facility, with concerns
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  ranging from immigration enforcement to potential effects on nearby agricultural land and
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  Lagos Creek. We have families right next door to that property. We've
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  got farm workers right next door to that property, Armandarese said. When
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  you start messing with the soil, you start dusting up You're putting
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  all these families at risk, no matter where they are politically, no
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  matter what their immigration status is. For now the project remains stalled
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  in court. The injunction does not end the project or resolve the
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  lawsuit, but it pauses construction, demolition, and development while the case proceeds.
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  Lee's order allows Federal officials to conduct an environmental review and consult
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  with state and local governments, and it requires the parties to propose
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  the injunction's final scope by september thirtieth. Armandara said organizers plan to
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  keep up that pressure as the legal fight continues. I hope that
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  our community continues to mobilize and organize to the extent that they
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  get tired of us and just give up, she said. They messed
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  with the wrong county, to be honest. We are such a well
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  resourced, well represented county. We've been organizing politically and in the community
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  for generations.