Monterey County bans new detention facilities for 45 days, bars county land from immigration enforcement

The Monterey County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 on Tuesday, Sept. 29, to impose a 45-day moratorium on the construction or expansion of detention and correctional facilities on unincorporated county land. In the same action, the board prohibited the use of county property for civil immigration enforcement, with exceptions for criminal enforcement and valid warrants.

The urgency ordinance took effect immediately and runs through Nov. 3. Supervisors may extend it by 22 months and 15 days, bringing the total possible length to two years.

The adobe Old Custom House in Custom House Plaza, Monterey's first government building under three flags. The county's moratorium also bars the use of county property for civil immigration enforcement.

Jsweida / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Source

Supervisor Luis Alejo, who has led the county's opposition to a proposed federal immigration detention facility in Gilroy, said an ICE facility anywhere in the region would harm immigrant communities. "An ICE detention center in our region would intimidate immigrant workers and their families, spreading fear and anxiety far beyond its walls," Alejo said in a statement released with Rep. Sam Liccardo's office.

Supervisor Chris Lopez said residents had made their fears plain. "Our community has expressed real fear about what a detention facility could mean for their families and their future. Today's action is about listening to those concerns, protecting the communities we serve, and providing reassurance that their voices matter. Our residents deserve to feel safe, secure, and heard in the place they call home," Lopez said in the same release.

Supervisor Wendy Root Askew echoed the point during the board's deliberations. "The fear and anxiety that it creates is not confined to that facility. Fear spreads through the entire region," Askew said, according to the Monterey County Weekly.

The vote continues a fight the county picked up in May, when the board voted to oppose the proposed ICE facility in Gilroy, just over the county line in Santa Clara County. Monterey County later joined an amicus brief with 25 other governments opposing the project, and a federal judge paused the Gilroy facility after finding that immigration officials had not completed required environmental review.

Colton Hall, the stone Greek Revival building where California's first constitutional convention met in 1849. The 45-day moratorium expires Nov. 3 unless supervisors extend it.

Brigitta J / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Source

San Jose moved the same day as Monterey County, enacting a similar ordinance on Sept. 29 restricting detention facilities within city limits.

The moratorium covers only unincorporated land, where the county holds land use authority. Cities in Monterey County, including Salinas and Monterey, retain their own zoning power over detention facilities inside their borders.

If supervisors let the 45-day clock run out without an extension, the moratorium lapses on Nov. 3. An extension of the full 22 months and 15 days would carry the ban into late 2028.