Good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome to the Alameda County Together for All ad hoc committee meeting.

Let's call the roll.

Supervisor Marquez.

Present.

Supervisor Fortunato Bass.

Present.

So thank you everyone for joining us.

We do have Spanish interpretation available here in our board chamber.

And I assume that will also be available to those on Zoom.

Madam Clerk, are there any instructions in terms of public participation?

If you'd like to speak on an item, you can fill out a speaker's card in the front of the room and hand it to the clerk for remote participation.

Follow the teleconferencing guidelines posted at www.acgov.org and use your raise the raise your hand function to speak on an item.

Thank you.

So as we get started, I'll share some framing remarks and run through the plan for our agenda today.

I'll hand it over to our vice chair to also share framing remarks and then we'll get into the agenda.

So firstly, Alameda County Together for All, this Act for All Committee.

It was created to provide a coordinated and proactive response to protect support and lift up communities that are impacted by federal policy changes and budgets.

So we're working to make sure that our communities are informed, prepared, and coordinated in protecting the critical health programs and social services as well as constitutional rights that we should all be afforded.

So we usually meet monthly on the first Thursday, and you can stay informed by visiting our website at district5.acgov.org slash ActForall.

So I do want to welcome us to our first meeting in 2026.

We know that the attacks on our communities have been relentless, and we are here to take action.

Very briefly, we've done tremendous work in 2025.

So together, Supervisor Marquez and I with this committee and all of your participation, we've been able to allocate seven and a half million dollars towards immigrant and refugee rapid response, deportation defense, community education and organizing, as well as legal services.

We're really proud of that work, as well as a future commitment for an office of immigrant affairs.

We've also been able to make recommendations to the board, which the board has approved to fund critical safety net services, services that are impacted by Trump's budget bill.

And just in the first weeks of this year, and the second year of this current Trump administration, I think it's clear that our communities are in crisis.

Immigrant communities across the country are facing a level of fear and instability that we can't ignore.

And that fear isn't abstract.

Immigration enforcement operations have resulted in shootings and deaths of community members, leaving families in neighborhoods traumatized and demanding answers.

Just in the last two weeks, our communities are still reckoning with the tragic killings by ICE agents of Keith Porter and Renee Good.

And last year, 2025 was the deadliest year for those in ICE custody in over two decades, with 32 of our community members losing their lives.

So throughout the state and nation, there has been an increase of incidents of arrests of both citizens and non-citizens by mass, non-uniformed, plain clothes federal agents.

Often these agents will not have visible names or officer identification numbers or other individually identifying information on their persons, and this practice is causing confusion, fear, and panic.

Our community members have no way of knowing whether these agents are exercising legitimate authority or committing crimes, thereby spreading distrust in law enforcement and harming public safety for all our county residents.

So not only has federal immigration enforcement intensified, the immigration court system is being hollowed out with federal judges fired, courts closing and cases being delayed for years.

In fact, over the past year, 100 immigration judges have been fired.

Here in San Francisco, the San Francisco immigration court will be closing, possibly as soon as the summer, and that will leave people in legal limbo.

We're hearing that when judges are fired, their cases are canceled, their hearings are canceled and delayed for three to four years.

And so there was already very little due process.

And with this happening within our court system, there will be even less due process in our courts, on our streets with these ICE agents, and we're also hearing that bond hearings are being increasingly restricted.

So this is a true crisis for our community.

Again, what we are hoping to do is make sure with the work that we're doing in this committee is we're upholding our legal system and our laws as well as our constitution.

These are fundamental rights for all of us.

And while this is happening, this mass deportation agenda, and all of what the federal administration is causing in terms of chaos, fear, trauma, separating families.

I know that those of you who are here, those of you who are we are partnering with, you have been demonstrating courage, resilience, and an unshakable commitment to keeping our community safe by organizing, educating, and empowering each other.

So I am very grateful for that.

And with the proposals I'm bringing forward today, my hope is that we as a county are also going to take on our responsibility with the same courage, clarity, compassion, coordination, and conviction that we see out in the community.

So the legislation that we'll talk about today is about protecting our residents, upholding fundamental rights, and ensuring our systems don't contribute to harm, and that our commitment is reflected with justice, public safety, and standing up for our communities, everyone who calls Alameda home.

So today's agenda is going to focus our discussion on continuing from November, where we discussed two policy proposals.

One is the development of a response plan in case of increased ICE enforcement, and the second is the adoption of a policy that would establish ice-free zones here in Alameda County.

We'll hear from our department heads about existing practices, planned initiatives, lessons learned, and operational considerations, and that will help inform our approach to having a coordinated realistic as well as effective response, again, to protect individual rights, maintain public safety, and importantly to continue access to our county services for all of our communities.

And again, our goal is simple.

Every resident should be able to access health care, courts, schools, and public services without fear.

So just to go through our agenda, we will hear from a brief overview from myself, kind of picking up where we left off in December, and then we will hear from Director Gassaway from a general services agency, Sheriff Sonia Sanchez, District Attorney Ursula Jones, probation chief Brian Ford, and public defender Brendan Woods.

Each presenter has five to ten minutes.

They all know their time.

We'll have clarifying questions and then discussion after the presentations.

From there, we'll have public comment.

It's one public comment on this item today, and then we'll come back to the committee for action.