Federal immigration agents will be required to remove masks and identify themselves in San Jose.
That’s following a unanimous decision by the San Jose City Council on Tuesday to enact the policy, with Mayor Matt Mahan absent from the vote. In addition, all law enforcement officers must wear clear identification and agency affiliation when conducting operations in the city. The San Jose Police Department will be required to inform the city manager when officers respond to incidents involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and require ICE to notify the police department before conducting any operations.
Councilmembers directed the city attorney to come up with a drafted policy within 60 days to create transparency and accountability for ICE agents, as well as protection for the immigrant community from people impersonating ICE agents.
“San Jose has a responsibility to lead on this issue,” District 5 Councilmember Peter Ortiz, who led the efforts, said at the meeting. “Our residents, regardless of their background, status or neighborhood, deserve to know that those who enforce the laws are held to the highest standard of transparency and accountability.”
District 8 Councilmember Domingo Candelas said 41% of residents in San Jose are foreign born, including his parents. He is worried people of color who are here legally will still be targeted by ICE.
“If you have your papers, your legal ability to be here, but you speak with an accent, you may be targeted,” Candelas said at the meeting. “And so that’s what I walk in fear of when my parents leave the house.”
ICE has conducted large-scale operations in cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco since President Donald Trump took office earlier this year. An Amigos de Guadalupe spokesperson told San José Spotlight this hasn’t been the case in Santa Clara County.
Still, fears of immigration raids have kept San Jose students from attending class and slowed foot traffic at Latino-owned businesses. Some undocumented residents have chosen to self-deport.
Immigration raids have given rise to ICE impersonators, including reported incidents at a Philadelphia university, the arrest of an impersonator in North Carolina for sexually assaulting a woman and an impersonator in Florida conducting a traffic stop asking people for their documents. San Jose’s policy aims to address this issue.
A Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office representative previously said they didn’t have any confirmed reports or calls related to ICE impersonators. But the county did see an increase of ICE agents showing up at jail facilities and the Superior Court during the summer.
Kimberly Woo, community organizer for Services Immigrant Rights and Education Network, said people of color already fear the police, and having masked agents or people impersonating ICE makes it worse.
“It is already scary for Black and brown communities of color, who are already over-policed to see armed men in vests stalking our streets and an even scarier reality when we don’t know who they are… which is exactly what ICE did when they kidnapped one of our immigrant loved ones in ConXión just last week,” Woo said at the meeting.
Last week, an ICE agent who identified himself as a police officer arrested a man at a day worker center, according to Rose Amador, retiring CEO of nonprofit ConXión to Community which runs the employment center.
In response to the arrest, Ortiz, Candelas and District 7 Councilmember Bien Doan are introducing a policy to provide more support for immigrant communities through outreach and employer education on best practices in partnership with Santa Clara County, which will be heard at the Rules and Open Government Committee meeting Wednesday.
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors earlier this month approved forming a county-coordinated regional response for residents facing deportation. It comes as county leaders have put $13 million into deportation legal defense since December.
Ortiz previously said it’s unclear whether San Jose has the authority to regulate federal agents, but he and the councilmembers who initiated the unmasking policy are prepared to fight for it in the courtroom.
“Across California and the nation, we are witnessing a troubling rise in heavy handed immigration enforcement, coupled with a Supreme Court decision that opens the door to racial profiling under the guise of immigration enforcement,” Ortiz said at the meeting. “We are affirming that fear and intimidation have no place in our city, that this city stands firmly on the side of fairness and openness.”
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X.
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