Facing continued uncertainty about the future of a proposed ICE facility on Holsclaw Road, the Gilroy City Council on Oct. 5 unanimously adopted a temporary moratorium on new detention and custodial facilities on public and private property within the city limits.
The moratorium takes effect immediately and remains in place through Nov. 19. The council could extend the moratorium for another 10 months and 15 days, and yet again for another 12 months if necessary, according to city staff.
The council declined to adopt a proposed policy to prohibit ICE from using city-owned property for staging, detention or other operations.
Mayor Greg Bozzo said the moratorium builds on previous efforts by the city to oppose the U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement project on Holsclaw Road. Those efforts include a June 1 resolution, unanimously adopted by the council, that declares the proposed ICE facility is not compatible with the city’s and region’s goals for agricultural, tourism and economic development planning.
However, the moratorium would not apply to the Holsclaw facility because it is outside the city limits. Furthermore, federal agencies have the authority to preempt local zoning and permitting ordinances, and thus the moratorium may not prevent the U.S. government from developing a facility in Gilroy.
An injunction in federal court has at least temporarily halted the federal project in unincorporated Gilroy. The state of California and Santa Clara County have sued the federal government in an effort to stop the construction of the proposed detention facility.
“This does not necessarily prevent the federal government from coming in and doing it under the radar,” Councilmember Kelly Ramirez clarified. “But it gives us the legal (standing) so that if we found out about it we could fight it in court.”
While the moratorium is in place, city staff will study a zoning proposal that would aim to restrict detention facilities to specific areas of Gilroy, and adopt standards for such facilities’ impacts on public services.
A city staff report added, “The moratorium immediately pauses the city’s acceptance and processing of applications for new detention and custodial facilities.”
Before the council meeting, dozens of local and area residents participated in a vigil and demonstration outside Gilroy City Hall in support of the moratorium. Organizers made dozens of cardboard crosses, each one representing a U.S. citizen or resident who has allegedly died in ICE custody in recent years and lining the edge of a lawn outside City Hall.
Some demonstrators spoke in English and Spanish about the impact that heavy-handed federal immigration enforcement has had on their families and communities. They circled the crosses, placing freshly cut flowers on each of the makeshift memorials.
Hours later inside Council Chambers, about 25 people addressed the moratorium during public comment on the agenda item. Almost all of them supported the moratorium and spoke against ICE activity in Gilroy.
“Listen to the residents of Gilroy. This (moratorium) needs to be done. We need to build trust,” Noshaba Afzal told the council. “Do the ethical and moral thing, and pass this.”
As the meeting and the council’s discussion approached its end, audience members continued to shout at councilmembers over their commentary on how to deal with ICE in Gilroy. The shouting from the gallery prompted Bozzo and others to ask the audience to quiet down several times.
