ICE-Free Marin Ordinance Demanded at Civic Center Rally

Photos: Leon Kunstenaar

After more than a year of advocacy efforts and six months of requests by the NO lCE IN MARIN COALITION to adopt an ICE-Free Marin Ordinance, the Marin Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, October 20th responded with a half-hearted, unenforceable policy.

Unlike the State of California and neighboring communities that have passed ICE-Free laws barring the use of their property, resources, data, and personnel for immigration enforcement, Marin County instead, after a year of inaction, ran a misleading PR campaign, passing off a weak internal policy as the equivalent of an ICE-Free law.

The County quietly admits its policy places no restrictions on ICE in public areas like the Civic Center parking lots and lobbies—the very places ICE routinely operates.

Now the County is trying a new diversion: on November 10, the Board will consider an “Urgency Ordinance" that would place a temporary moratorium on the construction of ICE detention centers.

While ICE has not undertaken or proposed to construct such a facility in Marin, No ICE in Marin has no objection to the ordinance. Their question is this: Why has the Board of Supervisors failed to act with urgency to end the ongoing ICE abductions at the Marin Civic Center?

Their tepid response comes at a moment when a 45-day ICE surge in California is ongoing under the Trump administration's directive to "go after anybody" and ICE activity is increasing in Marin significantly. It will only get worse under the influence of Stephen Miller, Trump's new Chief of Staff and the architect of the administration's horrifically inhumane |CE-led reign of terror.

Eighteen Marin residents were taken by ICE this October, which is more than the total number taken in all of 2025. Legal observers in Marin have observed ICE using electric shock gloves on detainees, even when detainees have NOT resisted arrest. Allowing this treatment on our county property is not only inhumane, but also an egregious violation of the trust that Marin residents have placed in the hands of the elected Board of Supervisors.

"The Board of Supervisors continues to avoid the central issue facing our community," said Sagrario Cordova Ramirez, an organizer with Fuerzas Unidas and the No ICE in Marin coalition. “Stopping our neighbors from getting kidnapped by ICE - that is what requires urgency. We are demanding the board return on December 8th with a new Urgency Ordinance: an ICE-Free law that would legally ban ICE from using county property to abduct members of our community.”

No ICE in Marin is a grassroots campaign organized by Cl coalition of 20 (and counting) local community organizations united to end any and all cooperation between the County of Marin and federal immigration authorities.

Since last fall, they have collected over 10,000 signatures from Marin residents and mobilized hundreds more to give public comment at Board of Supervisors meetings, calling on the Marin County Sherrif’s Ofiice and the Marin County Board of Supervisors to end their shameful cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

See all high resolution photos here.

See additional photos by Jeff Dooley of People giving comments to Board of Supervisors here.