Another Bay Area county creates ‘ICE-free zones’ after Minneapolis killings

Alameda County officials have said they do not welcome Immigration and Customers Enforcement. Now, they’ve made it official.

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted two ordinances on Tuesday to protect immigrants and reject ICE operations, as backlash to the most recent killing by federal immigration agents continued — including a march to the county administration building before the vote by striking members of the California Nurses Association who chanted “Abolish ICE.”

“Nursing does not stop at the bedside, and we know that. In order to heal our patients, we have to heal our communities. And right now, ICE is a danger,” said Michelle Gutierrez Vo, a president of the California Nurses Association and National Nurses Organizing Committee. “ICE is a danger to our communities, to the citizens, as evidenced by the killing of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.”

The first ordinance creates “ICE-free zones” that ban federal immigration enforcement activities from all county buildings, and requires all law enforcement officers to identify themselves upon entry. The second seeks to establish a Bay Area regional response plan, both within county agencies and across county lines, to connect with other local governments that have adopted similar “ICE-free zones.”

In her introduction of the ordinances, Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas drew a direct tie between the ordinances and the violence in Minneapolis, where ICE agents have killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old poet and mother of three, and Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Veterans Affairs ICU nurse. She emphasized the need for pro-active measures to protect residents of Alameda County when immigration agents return, which could be as soon as next month.

“We are in a true crisis. Not only in protecting our immigrants and refugees, but also the rule of law,” Fortunato Bas said. “The lawless violence we are witnessing is an assault on American and Alameda County values, our constitution and our human dignity. This is our opportunity to stand up and act.”

Fortunato Bas chairs the Alameda County Together for All (ACT) committee which began drafting the ordinances last fall amid the launch of a Bay Area immigration enforcement operation which was eventually called off. The presence of customs and Border Patrol agents in the Bay Area created a tense atmosphere at the entrance of Coast Guard Island in Alameda in October 2025.

Pro-immigrant civil rights group like the Council on American-Islamic Relations applauded the Board of Supervisors’ actions, stating, “This Board’s vote makes clear that Alameda County stands with its immigrant residents and opposes tyrannical federal raids that tear apart families and sow fear.”

Though passage of the ordinances is a win for immigrants and anti-ICE activists, Gutierrez said this is only the first step. She said that the California Nurses Association is seeking the end of ICE in its present form to protect their patients, hospitals and the public’s health and safety.

“They are a danger to the citizens. They are lawless, with utter disregard for public health. They have not demonstrated anything that they have done to make us better,” Gutierrez said. “(Nurses) are in the best seat in the house to tell everybody what their issues are.”