Yesterday, Monterey County and San Jose became the latest Bay Area jurisdictions to approve moratoriums on the construction of immigration detention facilities.
The Monterey County Board of Supervisors also passed a resolution further outlining restrictions on federal immigration authorities' use of county-owned property for enforcement.
Both jurisdictions moved to prohibit detention centers after plans for near Gilroy were reported. That plan is on pause after the state and county sued under environmental grounds. Spokespeople for ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security repeatedly denied there were any plans for a detention center, before a lawsuit revealed the intentions for the facility.
Both jurisdictions cited zoning regulations to make the temporary bans permanent. Both cited water and sewage concerns as practical hurdles to detention center construction.
Monterey County’s temporary moratorium would prohibit the construction, conversion, or operation of new and expanded detention and correctional facilities in the unincorporated areas of the county.
San Jose's moratorium uses similar language.
