Blueprints confirm ICE involvement in South County facility

Detailed blueprints show an ICE facility with detention and processing space is planned in South Santa Clara County.

The 111-page document obtained by this news outlet, dated Sept. 17, 2025, illustrates plans for a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility with detention areas, detainee processing areas, interview and holding rooms, spaces for mothers with infants, visitation rooms, weapons and ammunition rooms, tactical equipment storage, offices and a fitness center planned at 7240 Holsclaw Road. Certain pages of the document bear the logos for ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The planned facility is located in an unincorporated area right outside Gilroy.

San José Spotlight obtained the blueprints after first reporting on public records that gave an incomplete picture of the planned facility. The records originally suggested there would be a 4,000-square-foot detention center with office space. The total square footage of the project is roughly 20,000 square feet, with construction already underway and workers spotted on-site with fencing around the property.

Santa Clara County leaders are reviewing their legal options to stop the project, which they said is being built in an area not zoned for such a facility and without any notification or procedures in accordance with local laws.

“We oppose any effort to build an immigration detention facility anywhere in our county or across the Bay Area,” County Counsel Tony LoPresti told San José Spotlight. “Our County Counsel’s Office has a long track record of protecting our immigrant community against unlawful attacks by the federal government. Our office has been evaluating this project closely since activity began on the site in recent weeks. We are in touch with the Attorney General’s Office and are reviewing legal options. We will seek to prevent any effort to disregard or flout any applicable law to build a detention facility.”

Community organizers said they’ve been monitoring the site for months. They’ve also been holding meetings on how to oppose the facility and protect their undocumented neighbors.

“We oppose any expansion of ICE regardless of what it is,” Rebeca Armendariz — a former Gilroy councilmember and organizer with Bay Resistance, the ICE OUT Coalition and Community Agency for Resources, Advocacy and Services — told San José Spotlight. “Hundreds of community members, from the Central Coast to the Bay, have already been activated and we are going to mobilize. If ICE is listening — get out.”

ICE previously denied plans for a facility at the location. After San José Spotlight asked about the project blueprints, the agency described the project as an “ICE office” and denied it being a detention facility.

“The new Gilroy office will enable ICE to support local operations and enhance coordination with regional partners to ensure the enforcement of federal immigration laws at the operating standards of other offices nationwide,” an ICE spokesperson told San José Spotlight.

When reached for comment, a DHS spokesperson repeated a prior statement circulated to media.

“As with any transition, we are reviewing agency policies and proposals,” the spokesperson told San José Spotlight. “As Secretary (Markwayne) Mullin said in his confirmation hearing: ‘I will work with the community leaders and make sure that we are delivering for the American people what the president set out … We want to work with community leaders. We want to be good partners.'”

Representatives for Long Beach-based Environ Architecture, a firm identified in the blueprints, did not respond to requests for comment.

A DHS representative previously declined to confirm the plans, but generally said it will be expanding detention space nationwide.

The revelation of the facility has sent shockwaves through neighboring regions. Monterey County officials in May voted to review their land use policies to block any future proposed site within their jurisdiction. They also voted to join any lawsuit Santa Clara County files against the Gilroy project — and to send a letter to federal authorities opposing it. Most recently, the Gilroy City Council unanimously approved a resolution opposing the facility at its Monday meeting.

Federal procurement records show a contract for the facility was awarded Jan. 8, 2025 to an LLC with the same mailing address as Elmwood Capital Group, a Beverly Hills-based real estate firm tied to another immigration facility proposal in Texas. The notice identified Holsclaw Road as the Santa Clara County facility’s location. County property records show Elmwood Capital Group assumed ownership of the Holsclaw Road address last year, just weeks after the federal contract award. The company website lists the Holsclaw Road location — incorrectly labeled as San Jose — in its portfolio of projects.

Research has shown that communities near ICE facilities see upticks in enforcement activity and higher rates of arrests. Research also shows it creates a chilling effect on the public life of undocumented people — be it reduced school attendance or missed medical appointments for immigrant families and mixed-status households.

“Santa Clara County will vigorously fight in court any proposal to build the machinery of mass deportation in our community,” District 1 Supervisor Sylvia Arenas, who represents the area where the project is planned, told San José Spotlight.

Advocates have raised similar alarms in Dublin, where federal officials are preparing to transfer ownership of a former East Bay prison. The move raises concerns that Dublin might also be the site of a facility for federal immigration enforcement.

Santa Clara County has historically been a leader on local jurisdictions’ resistance to federal immigration crackdowns. The county led a coalition, which included San Francisco, suing to stop attempts to cut funding to cities and counties who declare themselves sanctuaries for people without citizenship. The county has also taken steps to coordinate real-time responses to ICE operations and ban immigration authorities from using county property for enforcement activity.

“Any type of ICE facility — whether it be a processing center or a large-scale warehouse-style detention center — in Santa Clara County endangers our neighbors and threatens our shared values of welcoming and belonging,” District 2 Supervisor Betty Duong told San José Spotlight. “We oppose all efforts to fast-track this administration’s deportation machine, and we will fight together with and for our community to protect the well-being of all those who call the Bay Area home.”

Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X.

Story updated June 4 at 9:24 a.m. Original story published June 4 at 8:30 a.m.