Pleasanton Police Say They Will Not Enforce Federal Immigration Laws

PLEASANTON, CA — The City of Pleasanton and the Pleasanton Police Department will not enforce federal immigration laws, the city said in the following statement:

“The City of Pleasanton, including the Pleasanton Police Department, wishes to address concerns raised by recent changes to federal immigration enforcement policies.
We want to assure our community that the City of Pleasanton does not intend to play a role in enforcing federal immigration laws. Our priority is to ensure the safety and well-being of all individuals living in our city, regardless of immigration status.

The City of Pleasanton fully supports the statement released earlier this week by the California Police Chiefs Association (CPCA), led by Pleasanton Police Chief Tracy Avelar, who serves as the Association’s President. As Chief Avelar and the CPCA have emphasized, protecting all Californians, including undocumented immigrants, is central to local law enforcement’s mission. This includes fostering trust within our community to encourage crime reporting and cooperation with law enforcement without fear of immigration-related consequences.

The safety of our community is our guiding focus, and we remain committed to addressing criminal activity and safeguarding every individual, regardless of their immigration status.

While federal immigration enforcement policies may evolve, it has never been the role of local police to enforce federal immigration laws.

The City of Pleasanton remains open and transparent as these policies continue to unfold, and we encourage our community to reach out with any questions or concerns.”

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office issued a similar statement, reassuring people that ICE is not conducting sweeps in local communities. “While we respect criminal warrants issued by a judge, Sheriff’s Office personnel do not comply with administrative immigration warrants,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “Importantly, we believe that local law enforcement involvement in ICE deportation operations undermines our community policing strategies and depletes local resources.”

The Sheriff’s Office affirmed its commitment to California SB 54, which prevents local law enforcement from using their resources to help ICE and prohibits state officials from using local resources to arrest, detain, or interrogate people for civil immigration enforcement, among other protections. It also affirmed its commitment to AB 2792, which requires local agencies to provide any individual in custody with ICE to provide written consent forms explaining the interview’s purpose and their rights in a language they understand, and notify individuals and their attorneys if ICE requests access to them. It also requires local governing bodies to hold a public forum once a year on their involvement with ICE, and publish information about ICE requests and how they’re handled.

The full ACSO policies on contact with ICE can be viewed here.

Reports of apparent immigration enforcement activity in the Bay Area this week have placed communities on edge as the new Trump administration calls for mass deportations.

To date, no raids or mass sweeps of the scale President Donald Trump has threatened have been reported in California, despite widely circulated media reports that recently stated otherwise. But officials and a string of volunteer, attorney-led networks called Rapid Response Networks have confirmed recent ICE sightings and deportation activities in the state.
On Tuesday, San Francisco immigrant rights activists and elected officials rallied in front of City Hall in support of the city's sanctuary policies following reports that ICE activity had been spotted downtown.

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, Police Chief Bill Scott, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, City Attorney David Chiu and Public Defender Mano Raju were just a few of the many local officials who spoke during the event to establish their commitment to abiding by the city's sanctuary policy.

On Thursday, ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers in Sacramento arrested an immigrant man from Guatemala who was convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor, officials said.

Meanwhile, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan confirmed that immigration enforcement operations took place in his city on Monday.

An ICE spokesman in Los Angeles confirmed to Patch on Monday that the agency does not conduct raids or sweeps and instead follows intelligence-driven leads for targeted arrests.

— Patch Editors Kat Schuster, Paige Austin, The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.