Jayadev: The Super Bowl is over, but ICE is still in the South Bay

The week leading up to the Super Bowl may have been one of the most significant displays of unity against an external threat Santa Clara County had seen in generations.

From elected politicians speaking at podiums, to high school students belting “ICE Outta the Bay!” from bullhorns during walk outs, Santa Clara County made our message clear — ICE is not welcome here.

Labor unions, immigrant rights groups, nurses, students, San Jose elders and faith representatives led a resounding echoing drumbeat that our community would not tolerate the infamous “ICE surge” we saw invade Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities. It seems undeniable that the showing of an organized, button-upped top to bottom community, influenced the calculus of the federal administration to not invade our county with the brutal, terrorizing and intentionally public raids ICE is known for.

But before the exhales happen over the celebration that the invasion never came to our figurative shores, it must be acknowledged that a regular ICE operation has remained embedded and continues in Santa Clara County.

The federal agency is taking residents, separating families and all the things everyone was collectively protesting about. Yet their actions are unchallenged by county leadership. From July 2025 to January 2026, 44 people were taken by ICE from the county jail. There is no indication this will stop.

When we at Silicon Valley De-Bug first heard of this, we immediately interpreted the action as a violation of a local policy we and others helped create in 2011. Back then, ICE was conscripting local jails to their mass deportation mission by demanding local facilities hold those they wanted to pick up and/or notify ICE when they were released.

In response, Santa Clara County created the Detainer Policy 3.54 — which stated absent a judicial warrant, “ICE agents shall not be given access to individuals or be allowed to use County facilities for investigative interviews or other purposes, and County personnel shall not expend County time or resources responding to ICE inquiries or communicating with ICE regarding individuals’ incarceration status or release dates.”

The policy was the strongest local immigrant protection in the nation, and was replicated in jurisdictions across the country over time.

But sheriff and county representatives say that ICE picking people up at the jail lobby or parking lot is not a violation of our policy. Even current strategies like the “ICE-free zones” which the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted last December has been deemed impotent to ICE taking people at the jail.

To us, this seems like a clear violation of our ICE detainer policy and current policies, but the county disagrees — and in this circumstance, they are both the creator and arbiter of the policy. So if the ref doesn’t call it, no flag, no penalty and ICE can march forward undisturbed.

The theater of ICE coming to Santa Clara County for the Super Bowl in many ways had the same dynamic as the game itself. The eyes of the world were watching our “arena,” how we would work together as a team to protect our home field. And we showed up and showed out.

If we are serious about our clarion call of “No ICE in the Bay,” if this is not theater or a game, Santa Clara County has to stop acquiescing to ICE and allowing people to be detained at the jail, simply because they have been incarcerated. ICE has developed a new way of attacking our people, and now we must respond. The ball is in our hands.

Raj Jayadev is executive director of Silicon Valley De-Bug, a racial justice organization based in San Jose.