Contra Costa County community advocates rallied at the board of supervisors meeting in Martinez Tuesday as part of an ongoing effort to demand that the county become a sanctuary for undocumented residents.
Dozens of demonstrators, including Richmond elected officials and representatives from community organizations and labor unions, gathered to wave signs and yell chants asking the county to establish clear policies for how their employees are to interact with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Speakers called out Contra Costa County Sheriff David Livingston in the wake of last month’s Truth Act public forum, where he confirmed that the department will sometimes notify ICE when it requests an anticipated release date for a county detainee on their watchlist — even though California law does not require such requests to be honored.
“We learned last month that the sheriff continues to cooperate with ICE,” Andrew Melendez, a Reimagine Richmond member, told the crowd. “We have learned that if we leave law enforcement unchecked, law enforcement will betray our community and they will cooperate with ICE.”
Raul Arana, a Concord resident and community engagement coordinator with United Latino Voices, said that by cooperating with ICE the sheriff is destroying the trust being built by organizers with the undocumented community.
“I’ve looked at students in the eyes and told them we were safe and that our city would not allow something to happen to our residents,” he said. “But the recent ICE incident at John Muir hospital was a painful reminder that ICE is allowed to operate freely in our county.”
On July 29 at the Concord John Muir Medical Center ICE agents brought in an “unresponsive detainee,” according to Jennifer Morales, community organizing manager with Monument Impact, a Concord-based nonprofit that provides resources for low-income families.
“Management denied the man’s wife any knowledge of her husband’s condition or access to see him even after she provided proof of marriage,” Morales said. “Hospital management went so far as to call local police and the detainee was ushered out of the back of the hospital, never having access to his family or attorney.”
Contra Costa sheriff reports receiving 293 ICE requests about detainees in 2025
After the rally, demonstrators packed into the board of supervisors meeting, where they would hear Livingston present his second quarter Sheriff’s Oversight Report and 2025 statistics.
Under SB 54, a bill passed in 2017 known as the California Values Act, county sheriffs are not required to share information with ICE, though they may choose to do so for detainees held on certain serious and/or violent felony charges.
In Tuesday’s report, the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office reported that, so far in 2025, the agency has received 293 requests from ICE asking that it be notified about specific detainees held in county detention facilities and has honored 55 of those requests, meaning they provided information about them and their custody status.
When asked by county board of supervisors Chair and District 2 Supervisor Candace Andersen how the county evaluates ICE or other agency notification requests, Livingston said they are reviewed by a supervisor.
District 1 Supervisor John Gioia, who represents Richmond and other parts of west Contra Costa County, pointed out that, although the sheriff’s report focused on more than its cooperation with ICE, the recent policies enacted by the federal government have drawn attention from constituents concerned about ICE.
“This is not your normal ICE. This is ICE on steroids with an administration that is running in a way that is authoritarian and I think we are concerned when we talk about this,” Gioia said.
Gioia also said recent policy directives by the federal government are affecting the county’s Head Start program and would make undocumented residents ineligible to be enrolled.
“This now presents a real possibility that ICE comes to one of our free school Head Start centers to detain, arrest, take away, split up families of preschool children,” he said. “We are concerned about that and how we can be protective.”
District 5 Supervisor Shanelle Scales-Preston said one of the issues that arose out of last month’s Truth Act forum was the need to consolidate a countywide response for what to do when ICE agents show up.
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“This is not your normal ICE. This is ICE on steroids“
— Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia
“That is something we need for every single department,” she said. “It could be at Contra Costa Health or any other department. What is the process that staff is going to do?”
Gioia added that although the county’s current policies, which state that the county doesn’t share immigration status or limit access to services based on that, are “a start,” he said they aren’t strong enough to be helpful.
“We need more, frankly,” he said. “Our own employees are not going to physically be able to stop an ICE officer coming into the George Miller Head Start Center in Richmond. We need to have more discussion about how we can protect those families including folks in our own health system.”
