The Richmond City Council on Tuesday plans to consider drafting an ordinance that would bar federal agents from using city property for immigration enforcement operations.
If approved, the city manager and city attorney will draft an ordinance that would prohibit federal immigration enforcement activities on city-owned property while establishing protocols for responding to potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
Vice Mayor Doria Robinson, who represents District 3, and District 6 council member Claudia Jimenez are proposing the ordinance and cited recent National Guard deployments in Minneapolis and enforcement actions in other cities as prompting their effort to establish better local protections.
Richmond, which has a large undocumented community, has largely been unaffected by any mass immigration enforcement operations, though the city has had a number of unconfirmed ICE sightings in the past year. More than 100 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents were sent to Coast Guard Island in Alameda in October 2025, but President Trump eventually was persuaded by local leaders to stand down.
If you go
What: Richmond City Council meeting
When: 6 p.m., Tue. Feb. 3
Where: 440 Civic Center Plaza or via Zoom
The most publicized immigration enforcement action in west Contra Costa County was the September 2025 deportation of 73-year-old grandmother Harjit Kaur, who said she was denied water, her medication and a bed during her 15-day detention prior to being forced to return to India.
Jimenez told Richmondside on Thursday that, though she believes that the current sanctuary city ordinance is strong, the recent actions in Minneapolis have prompted city officials to look at ways to fill in any gaps in order to make Richmond’s undocumented population feel at ease. In fact, today that city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, speaking at the United States Conference of Mayors’ winter meeting in Washington, made a point of warning other civic leaders that they could be next.
“We want to make sure that we don’t have any holes as well as give a message to the community that we are here to be careful and make sure that they know that we are in service to them,” Jimenez said. “We want to have these protocols for the city and all city staff in case there are public disturbances, protests or if the national guard is deployed. Hopefully we won’t have that but I think we need to be prepared because this administration is attacking everybody right now.”
If the proposal is approved on Tuesday, City Manager Shasa Curl and acting City Attorney Shannon Moore will be asked to give an update at the Feb. 17 council meeting and return within 45 days with a final proposed ordinance.
Recently, other cities and counties statewide have pushed to establish “ICE-Free Zones” as a way to push back on enforcement efforts, including in places such as Alameda County, Santa Clara, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Earlier this week, Alameda County’s Board of Supervisors finalized a policy that will bar immigration agents from using county-owned property — including parking lots, garages, and nonpublic areas of buildings — to stage operations, process detainees, or for surveillance.
Earlier Thursday, Mayor Barbara Lee issued an executive order establishing “ICE-Free Zones” in Oakland.
The proposed “ICE-Free Zone” ordinance in Richmond would essentially do the same and would require the installation of signs on city properties detailing how any attempted use for immigration enforcement should be reported to the city manager, the Richmond mayor and city attorney.
The ordinance is expected to clarify that city employees and city resources cannot assist federal immigration enforcement beyond what is legally required, including “refusing deputization and denying logistical support to National Guard units unless explicitly authorized by law.”
The proposal also directs the city staff to develop emergency preparedness strategies, including identifying libraries, recreation centers and community centers that could serve as emergency shelters or clinics during protests, natural disasters or other emergencies. Staff would also be directed to coordinate with “healthcare providers, labor unions and volunteer networks” to build emergency medical capacity, citing Richmond’s limited hospital capacity.
The ordinance would require the city to establish communications protocols for rapid public notifications if ICE activity or National Guard personnel come to Richmond. This could include a citywide text alert system, multilingual materials and coordination with local media, faith organizations, schools and businesses. Currently, a rapid response network operated by local activists with Reimagine Richmond and Stand Together Contra Costa issue t alerts on the Signal app about verified sightings of ICE agents around Richmond.
Ordinance would be latest in ongoing efforts to support Richmond’s undocumented residents
The ordinance would be the latest in efforts by city officials to proactively address threats of heightened immigration enforcement on sanctuary cities like Richmond since President Trump’s inauguration in January 2025.
In March 2025, the city council passed a resolution reallocating $1 million from the city’s $13 million 2024-25 fiscal year surplus to establish a public awareness campaign to help Richmond immigrants understand their constitutional rights.
However, the city initially didn’t get any applicants for the grants though until October 2025, when three organizations — Catholic Charities of the East Bay, East Bay Sanctuary Council and the Multicultural Institute — were announced as recipients.
Richmond’s first sanctuary ordinance, which was passed in 1990, limits police and city employees from working directly with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and instructs staff to forward any ICE requests to the city manager or police chief and the city council.
A second ordinance, approved in 2018 during Trump’s first term, added a ban on contracting with data companies that work with ICE. Late last year, Richmond’s police Chief Tim Simmons told Richmondside that he turned off its Flock Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR) after discovering a “national search” feature had been active, potentially allowing outside law enforcement agencies to search Richmond’s local data — a violation of that 2018 ordinance.
Richmond has maintained sanctuary city policies that limit certain interactions with ICE, but local advocates, including members of Reimagine Richmond, have argued since March 2025 that the city should clarify what it will do in case an immigration enforcement targets the city.
“I think that our city attorneys were cautious right now and I think it’s time for us to be bold,” Reimagine Richmond member Marisol Cantu said during the March 2025 city council meeting where the $1 million was approved, adding that any ordinance the city adopts should establish free speech protections for undocumented protestors, safe zones on all city-owned property and call for an audit of all the city’s data contractors to see if they are in compliance with the 2018 ordinance.
“In Richmond we are willing to do whatever we can do without being afraid,” Jimenez told Richmondside. “Doing this is another demonstration of that and if there is anything else we can do to be more bold I think we have a council that supports that.”
