Sonoma County Bans ICE From Using County Property, Allocates $1.5M to Protect Immigrants

Sonoma County just told ICE to stay off its property.

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to advance an ordinance that prohibits county employees from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement operations, bans immigration authorities from using any county property for enforcement actions, and affirms that the county does not collect or share immigration status information unless legally required.

The ordinance also comes with teeth: $1.5 million set aside for legal defense, mental health support, and family reunification services for immigrants targeted by the Trump administration's deportation machine.

"ICE raids are not welcome in Sonoma County," said Board Chair Rebecca Hermosillo in a statement announcing the move.

The ordinance is the product of a year-long effort by the Supporting Immigrant Communities Ad Hoc Committee, led by Hermosillo and Supervisor Lynda Hopkins. It follows months of community listening sessions where immigrant families shared their fears about workplace raids, family separations, and the chilling effect of Trump's immigration crackdown on access to basic services.

The $1.5 million funding package will support removal defense attorneys, mental health counseling for families facing deportation threats, coordination among service providers, multilingual outreach through trusted community messengers, and support for families after a member has been detained. County staff will return to the Board with specific funding recommendations later this month.

"We have spent the last year listening to immigrant communities, hearing their anxieties, their needs and their fears," Hopkins said. "By dedicating this funding stream, we can now say that we have a mechanism to start addressing these concerns."

The ordinance does not apply to agencies under the authority of other elected officials, meaning the Sheriff's Office and District Attorney's Office operate under separate policies. But for county-controlled facilities and employees, the message is clear: cooperation with ICE enforcement is off the table.

The move puts Sonoma County in the vanguard of local resistance to Trump's immigration agenda. While so-called sanctuary policies have become common in blue states, explicitly banning ICE from using county property for enforcement operations goes further than many jurisdictions have been willing to go, particularly as the administration threatens to withhold federal funding from non-compliant localities.

The ordinance will be formally adopted at a second reading on April 28. If it passes as expected, Sonoma County will join a growing list of jurisdictions that have decided protecting immigrant families is more important than staying in the Trump administration's good graces.

For immigrant communities in Sonoma County, the ordinance represents more than symbolic support. It creates concrete barriers to ICE operations and dedicates real money to legal defense and family support. In an era when federal immigration enforcement has become increasingly militarized and indiscriminate, local resistance matters.

The question now is whether other counties will follow Sonoma's lead, or whether they'll continue to let ICE use their facilities and employees to carry out mass deportations.