Protesters Call for Sheriff's Office to End Contract with ICE, DA Resignation

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA — A rally Wednesday the Contra Costa Administration Building in Martinez called for the Sheriff's department to end their collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as the resignation of District Attorney Mark Peterson, according to organizers.

Hundreds gathered in front of the county building in response to an incident that occurred last year involving an immigrant being ambushed by ICE agents after attending a probation meeting. According to Sheriff David Livingston, the county was already working towards remedying that situation and ensured that it wouldn't happen again.

"The reality is immigration is a federal issue and what our involvement is with the Contra Costa Sheriff's, is really a contract that we've had for many years with ICE to hold people for a short period of time.
We comply with the California Trust Act completely for those that are booked into our jail," Livingston said.

Several protesters held signs, and chanted "No nice with ICE" as speakers demanded the local government end their contracts with the agency.

"Our local government can do what a lot of sanctuary cities do, they can not voluntarily give this information to ICE. Folks who are in the system, and trying to improve their lives need to have that chance to do so,
and not be set up when they go to a probation meeting," Ramses Teon-Nichols Vice president for SEIU local 1021 said.

Additionally, organizers said they wanted the county to work towards having sanctuary cities, something Livingston said he did not support.

"Absolutely not. Especially now that the President has indicated that there may be severe funding cuts for local agencies that do declare themselves as sanctuary cities or counties, and that could be devastating to
our county," Livingston said.

Sanctuary cities implement policies to shield undocumented immigrants from deportation. Former Vice Mayor of Martinez AnaMarie Avila Farias said she felt that until the county received good public policy, they needed to be a sanctuary county.

"We march to a different beat of progress in public policy and I am confident that we will prevail against any discriminatory type policies that our new president may try to roll out in his administration," Farias
said.

In addition to the county ending its contract with ICE, organizers called for the resignation of District Attorney Mark Peterson after he was found to have illegally spent tens of thousand of dollars from his political campaign account on personal items over a period of more than five years.Peterson, who first took office in 2010 and won re-election in 2014, was fined $45,000 by the Fair Political Practices Commission for
violating the California Political Reform Act by spending $66,372 on personal expenses.

Peterson admitted to the spending and reached an agreement with the FPPC's Enforcement Division on the fine. He has since paid back all the money he took from the campaign account and has already sent a check for the fine amount to the FPPC. His office declined to comment.

By Bay City News

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