Santa Clara County Establishes Ice-Free Zones

People hold a vigil at Fruitvale Station in Oakland, Calif. to show solidarity with demonstrations against ICE raids, on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Santa Clara County will begin using barriers and gates to effectively create ICE-free zones throughout Silicon Valley, designed to stop federal immigration agents from using county property for surveillance and arrests.

Following similar tactics used to deter ICE agents in Chicago, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to create these “ICE-free zones” across the county at last Thursday’s meeting. Parking lots, garages and similar vacant county properties are ideal locations for federal agents to use for local immigration enforcement, oftentimes illegally without court orders.

The initiative, introduced by Supervisor Sylvia Arenas, creates signs warning ICE agents, fences, physical barriers and locks these spaces so that federal agents cannot use them.

Santa Clara County has also voted on and is coordinating a three-stage counter-response to ICE raids in the community. The plan receives preliminary approval and will increase the county’s response to local ICE raids and surveillance. 

Many local residents came and spoke out in support of the county’s action. District 1 supervisor Sylvia Arenas spearheaded the move. 

“The administration targets brown people in a way that’s just so vile. We all have an immigration story,” Arenas told the San Jose Spotlight before the vote. “I’m doing this for my parents, for my family, and for my community.”

However, there are concerns of the pushback and attention this may attract from the federal government. 

“I just want to make sure we’re not doing anything to put a target on us,” District 5 Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga said before the vote.

These ICE-free zones come just as Trump announced he will not send National Guard troops to Alameda County.