By Thomas Hughes. Bay City News.
San Mateo County further codified its refusal to cooperate with immigration authorities in most cases by passing an ordinance Tuesday restricting county employees from sharing information with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ?ICE for its acronym in English? or assist the agency in any way with immigration enforcement.
The law prevents county departments and employees from using county resources to assist ICE by detaining or transferring anyone already in custody or assisting with an arrest.
However, the ordinance has exceptions for cases where a federal judge has signed an order for immigration proceedings and investigations that do not involve immigration enforcement, such as human trafficking and other crimes.
The ordinance passed by a 4-1 vote, with Supervisor Ray Mueller being the only one to deny. He said he did not support the lack of an exception in the ordinance to help ICE in deportation cases where someone has been convicted of certain violent crimes such as murder, rape and lewd acts, especially against children.
An amendment that would have added such an exception was defeated 3-2 before the final vote, with Supervisor David Pine voting for the failed amendment and ultimately for the ordinance as it stood.
Supervisor David Canepa said the law brings San Mateo County in line with sanctuary policies in neighboring San Francisco and Santa Clara counties.
“This ordinance brings great relief to our immigrant communities who are wary of law enforcement and particularly ICE. Many immigrants do not report crimes for fear of being deported and that makes us all less safe," Canepa said.
California legislators passed the California Securities Act in 2017 that prohibits local law enforcement in the state from assisting ICE in immigration enforcement.
The former San Mateo County Sheriff initially opposed the restriction, stating that the Sheriff's Office was constitutionally authorized to independently cooperate with federal law enforcement. The sheriff's office changed the policy in 2021, bringing the office in line with state law.
Sheriff Christina Corpus, who took office in January, said she supported the ordinance and the sheriff's office would not assist ICE except for reasons outlined in the law.
The ordinance goes into effect on May 25.
County attorney John Nibbelin said during an earlier board meeting that if a future sheriff were to change the policy again, it could create a constitutional challenge in court.
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