{"id":1839,"date":"2026-06-11T11:38:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=1839"},"modified":"2026-06-11T11:38:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:38:54","slug":"california-santa-clara-county-sue-to-block-ice-detention-facility-near-gilroy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=1839","title":{"rendered":"California, Santa Clara County sue to block ICE detention facility near Gilroy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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California and Santa Clara County sued the Trump administration Wednesday in a bid to halt what officials described as a secretive, already-under-construction U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u00a0detention facility on Gilroy\u2019s outskirts, alleging federal officials bypassed environmental laws, ignored local land-use restrictions and failed to consult with state or county leaders before moving ahead.<\/p>\n

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Filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, alleges the facility would violate federal environmental laws because the government failed to produce an environmental assessment or impact statement before entering the lease and starting construction. It also claims the project would run afoul of federal immigration law because it is planned for land zoned exclusively for agricultural use, near habitat for several endangered and threatened species.<\/p>\n

The facility, just east of Highway 101 and the Gilroy city limits and north of Highway 152, appears to be designed to hold up to 150 people, said Tony LoPresti, Santa Clara County\u2019s top lawyer. But federal officials have declined to officially acknowledge the project, which was revealed through news reports based on federal property-procurement documents.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit seeks a court order permanently stopping development of the site into an ICE detention facility. It remains unclear what effect the legal action could have on a project the federal government has not publicly confirmed.<\/p>\n

The case may turn partly on who would operate the facility. Legal experts have said the Constitution\u2019s supremacy clause gives the federal government broad power to override state and local opposition when it runs a facility directly. But if the facility is privately run, the county and state may have more room to challenge the project through zoning, environmental and other local laws.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also targets what state and county officials described as the secrecy surrounding the project. It alleges the Trump administration violated the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act by moving ahead without giving the state or county a meaningful opportunity to weigh in.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince returning to office, President Trump and his administration have led a mass-detention and deportation campaign that has led to cruel, inhumane and unacceptable conditions at immigration holding and detention facilities across California,\u201d California Attorney General Rob Bonta alleged in news conference Wednesday in San Jose.<\/p>\n

LoPresti called the administration\u2019s plan a \u201creckless attempt to build an ICE facility on sensitive and protected land without regard to its impacts on the environment, the community, and, most critically, the humans who would be detained there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The White House referred questions about the lawsuit and California officials\u2019 claims to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE. Neither DHS nor ICE responded to questions Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Named as defendants in the lawsuit were ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE. DHS last month said in a statement it had \u201cno new detention centers to announce at this time,\u201d that it was \u201cconducting law enforcement activities across the country to keep Americans safe\u201d and that \u201cit should not come as news that ICE will be making arrests in states across the U.S. and is actively working to expand detention space.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have reason to believe it\u2019s a facility designed to temporarily hold detained individuals before shipping them off to larger detention facilities,\u201d LoPresti said. \u201cIt\u2019s the type of facility that is the subject of lawsuits throughout the nation for warehousing people in inhumane conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

LoPresti said that when such facilities are built, \u201cit signals that there is going to be an immediate ramping up of detentions and all kinds of different ICE activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bonta alleged that across the U.S., ICE has been \u201cmisusing short-term holding facilities as de facto long-term detention sites, where people face overcrowding, prolonged multiple-day detention and other inhumane conditions without required safeguards, services and oversight required for extended confinement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s zoning prohibits detention facilities of any size on the land where the center is planned, LoPresti said.<\/p>\n

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County and state officials said in a news release that the project threatens agricultural land protected since the 1960s and \u201ccould also have severe impacts on vital infrastructure, straining waste and drinking water infrastructure and leading to the deterioration of critical roadways.\u201d<\/p>\n

LoPresti said past research and development work at the site led to 30 years of chemical leaks and spills.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is, as we speak, active construction disturbing a potentially contaminated site, putting construction workers, and employees, and potentially detained individuals, at severe risk,\u201d LoPresti said.<\/p>\n

LoPresti also warned of \u201cpotentially devastating impacts\u201d on a subspecies of steelhead fish in an adjacent creek.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe supremacy clause does not allow the federal government to do whatever it wants,\u201d Bonta said at the Wednesday news conference, citing the Constitution\u2019s Tenth Amendment safeguarding states\u2019 rights. \u201cIn our cases where we sue the Trump administration to stop it from doing what it wants when it wants \u2026 we\u2019re winning 80% of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

LoPresti said he expected the federal government to \u201ctry to hide behind the supremacy clause\u201d as it pursues the new detention facility. He added that his office has requested access to the property for an inspection, and if permission is denied, his office will seek an order in state court to allow access.<\/p>\n

In May, Bonta\u2019s office released , pointing to \u201can unprecedented surge\u201d in the number of people held, from 2,303 in 2023 to 6,028 last year. Detainees last year were subjected to inadequate medical care and delayed treatment, overcrowding, inadequate food, and excessive use of force by guards, the report claimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the detainees shouldn\u2019t even be in detention,\u201d Bonta said Wednesday, noting that in the past, many people suspected of being in the country illegally were allowed to remain free as their immigration cases proceeded. \u201cMost have families, have jobs, have strong roots in the community, have no criminal record, can be and should be in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has said its deportation campaign prioritizes the \u201cworst of the worst,\u201d but under the law, people in the country without legal authorization can be deported even if they don\u2019t have a criminal record.<\/p>\n

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, who represents Gilroy in the Legislature, said Wednesday, \u201cOur community is not a dumping ground for Trump\u2019s ICE chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although LoPresti said earlier that the prospect of a legal fight tying up the detention facility project in court past the end of Trump\u2019s administration was \u201csomething we have to be and are thinking about,\u201d Bonta said Wednesday that such a delay played no part in the legal strategy behind the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Bonta and LoPresti said they had not yet determined what type of court order they would seek \u2014 such as a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction \u2014 to get the project stopped while the case proceeds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to move expeditiously,\u201d LoPresti said. \u201cWe will certainly be looking for the court to take action quite soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Horoscopes June 11, 2026: Peter Dinklage, pay attention to your health<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Legal experts have said the outcome of any lawsuits against the federal government over the planned facility would hinge on whether the facility was run by a federal contractor or the federal government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nCalifornia, Santa Clara County sue to block ICE detention facility near Gilroy - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=1839\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"California, Santa Clara County sue to block ICE detention facility near Gilroy - 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