Armed federal immigration agents were seen inside and outside the Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas on Thursday, prompting community advocates to question why they were at the jail and whether the activity conflicts with Santa Clara County's civil immigration policy, The San Francisco Focal reported.
Source: The San Francisco Focal
Cellphone video showed agents at the facility, the Focal reported. Advocates with Silicon Valley De-Bug and the Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network were also there monitoring the situation.
Raj Jayadev of Silicon Valley De-Bug said the presence felt like an escalation, though advocates did not know whether it signaled a larger operation, according to the Focal. He said the groups were concerned ICE might be waiting for people to be released from custody, and that advocates have previously known people who left jail but did not make it home because ICE was waiting to take them into custody.
What the sheriff's office says
The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office said ICE agents made no arrests or detentions at the facility on Thursday. It said the agents stayed in areas open to the public, jail operations continued as usual and no incidents were reported, the Focal reported.
The county's civil immigration policy generally bars county employees from assisting federal civil immigration enforcement, including by sharing release dates. The sheriff's office said it does not coordinate with ICE, provide release information or have advance knowledge of the agency's operations.
In an earlier official clarification about ICE activity at Elmwood, the Sheriff's Office said it did not assist in an arrest there, did not provide advance notification to ICE, and cannot contact ICE about upcoming releases under California's Values Act (SB 54) and county policy. It said information confirmed at the jail's public lobby was publicly accessible through its inmate locator, public court records and other databases.
Source: Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office
Elmwood is in the heart of Silicon Valley, home to a large Punjabi and South Asian community in Milpitas, San Jose and Fremont. Whether federal agents can wait at a county jail — without any county help — is now the central question advocates are pressing county officials to answer.
The East Bay Times has separately reported that detentions by ICE agents waiting for people being released from Santa Clara County's jail system have raised alarm in recent weeks over sanctuary policies, and that the sheriff's office has said such detentions did not involve violations of the county's sanctuary policy. Awaaz Punjab is not reporting that any arrest took place at Elmwood on Thursday — the sheriff's office says none did.