Federal detention center planned in South County

Public records suggest the federal government plans to build a detention center in Santa Clara County, just 11 miles south of an ICE field office in Morgan Hill.

The potential facility would be located at 7240 Holsclaw Road, an unincorporated area right outside Gilroy’s boundaries. Federal procurement records show the General Services Administration, which handles contracts for federal agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), sought Santa Clara County properties in 2020 to build a detention center.

The detention center was envisioned to be as large as 4,000 square feet with a sally port — a secure, controlled entryway for detainee transport — with office space. At the time, Gilroy was not a specified location for the roughly 20,000 square-foot project.

More recent records show a contract — bearing the same identification number as the detention center solicitation — 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 detention center proposal in Texas. The notice identified Holsclaw Road as the 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 labeling it San Jose — in its portfolio of projects.

“We oppose any effort to build an immigration detention center anywhere in our county or across the Bay Area,” County Executive James Williams told San José Spotlight. “The county’s zoning ordinance does not allow detention centers to be built or operated on this property, and the county will seek to prevent any effort to disregard or flout any applicable law to build a detention facility. Our County Counsel’s Office has a long track record of protecting our immigrant community against unlawful attacks by the federal government, and we know it will do everything in its power to do so in this case as well.”

Representatives for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have neither confirmed nor denied the plans.

“We have no new detention centers to announce at this time,” a spokesperson for the agency told San José Spotlight. “It 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.”

Neither Elmwood Capital Group’s representatives nor the General Services Administration responded to questions about the current status of the facility proposal. Noah Zeligman, one of Elmwood Capital Group’s principals, declined to comment.

Sounding alarms

Rebeca Armendariz, a community organizer with Working Partnerships USA and former Gilroy councilmember, said construction workers were all over the site this week, putting up privacy fencing and tearing down some of the existing greenhouses on the rural property.

“If their plans are to build an ICE facility there, our plans are to stop them,” Armendariz told San José Spotlight. “Our community can and will mobilize to make sure that these types of warehouses for our friends and neighbors are not put up in our backyard. We know that our leaders, from the elected to the students to clergy and grassroots, stand with us and stand strong.”

The plans have rung alarm bells for South County civic and business leaders.

“I’m extremely disappointed the federal government is considering placing this type of facility so close to our community,” Gilroy Mayor Greg Bozzo, who emphasized he’s speaking in a personal capacity, told San José Spotlight. “Gilroy is a city built on trust, respect and genuine connection. We take pride in being a welcoming place where people feel safe and supported and we work every day to strengthen those relationships.”

It’s also jolted a well-known Gilroy farming family — the city’s largest private employer — whose many workers include migrants.

“The community is experiencing fear and there has been a lack of communication from municipal, county, state and federal leaders,” Ken Christopher, executive vice president of Christopher Ranch, told San José Spotlight. “Whether it’s the Department of Homeland Security or whatever appropriate department it is that’s deciding to go forward with this — this was handled all wrong. They failed to address a community that is largely Hispanic and has a large migrant population who could experience lasting harm.”

Christopher said he has faith the community will organize.

“For me this is a nonpartisan issue,” he said. “Anxiety and fear is not fair to our community, which has already endured a lot.”

In April, the San Francisco Chronicle reported ICE sought additional co-working spaces for agency employees in Morgan Hill, among a list of 89 other cities across the country.

While Santa Clara County has not seen mass immigration raids, there have been targeted arrests of about 210 people, local immigration advocates said. For local immigrants, getting access to basic services has been laced with precaution to avoid encounters with ICE. Not only are people skipping appointments, not showing up to school and avoiding going to grocery stores, advocates said families have also refrained from visiting parks, places of worship, restaurants and community events. Some undocumented residents have chosen to self-deport.

Ready to oppose

District 1 Supervisor Sylvia Arenas, who represents South County on the Board of Supervisors, said ICE is causing irreparable harm to families.

“This new plan is an obvious effort to expand (the government’s) campaign of terror in our community,” Arenas told San José Spotlight. “In Santa Clara County, we are clear eyed that an attack on immigrants is an attack on all our families. While they are trying to build in my district, the entire county will stand in opposition. We will fight any detention facility with every possible tool at our disposal, and we’re absolutely ready to send our County Counsel to battle this out in court if they try to move forward.”

Santa Clara County leaders have been at the forefront of opposing President Donald Trump’s federal immigration crackdowns across the U.S. The county led a coalition of local jurisdictions, including 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.

District 4 Supervisor Susan Ellenberg said there’s no place for a detention center in Santa Clara County.

“Our county has stood with our immigrant community at every turn during Trump’s mass deportation campaign, and we will do so again by fighting with any and all means at our disposal, any attempt to build an infrastructure designed to inflict harm on children and families and destabilize our community,” Ellenberg told San José Spotlight.

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