Gilroy ICE facility blocked after sparking ‘wave of fear’ among residents

Rebecca Armendariz first heard rumblings of a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility outside her hometown of Gilroy in late spring, when a local real estate agent began “bragging” about selling a property to the Department of Homeland Security. 

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Within weeks, public records and the detailed blueprints revealed plans for an ICE facility at 7240 Holsclaw Road, on unincorporated agricultural land just outside Gilroy, with detainee processing areas, interview rooms and holding cells. Court records say the holding rooms could accommodate as many as 150 detainees, though ICE has disputed that estimate. 

“It kind of felt like a UFO landed in our community,” Armendariz, a longtime community and union organizer who co-founded the Gilroy advocacy group CARAS, told SFGATE. “There was a whole wave of fear.” 

Gilroy is a city with deep ties to agriculture, an annual garlic festival, and generations of immigrant and farmworker families. Armendariz said some families who had lived there for decades began coming to CARAS for answers. 

“Folks that come to brag about how well their kids are doing in school and inviting us to their child’s graduations were now asking us where they should be moving to,” she said. “It’s really heartbreaking.”

The mounting alarm gave way to a contentious legal battle spearheaded by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti seeking to stop the construction and eventual operation of the facility. 

“They have to do it in a manner that complies with the law,” LoPresti told SFGATE. “They can’t just claim some weird Trumpian exemption.” 

‘No one is above the law’

On June 10, the state and county sued ICE, DHS, the General Services Administration and the project’s private developer, Elmwood Capital Group, alleging the project advanced without required environmental review or consultation with state and local officials. The lawsuit also brought claims under federal immigration and administrative law and California’s Williamson Act, which has restricted the property to agricultural uses since 1967.

U.S. District Judge Eumi K. Lee granted California and Santa Clara County a preliminary injunction Friday, finding the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claim that federal officials failed to conduct the environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy Act. 

The environmental dispute centers in part on the 24.5-acre Holsclaw property’s septic capacity, its “instances of hazardous material mismanagement” and potential effects of the facility’s construction on protected species. Agricultural research companies operated there from 1993 to 2023 and handled pesticides, solvents and other hazardous materials, according to the court. 

The state and county contend construction could disturb remaining contaminants and that the existing septic system may be inadequate for the proposed use, potentially sending wastewater toward nearby Llagas Creek. The creek directly borders the property and is designated critical habitat for threatened south-central California coast steelhead, according to the lawsuit.

“This is a location with really serious problems,” LoPresti told SFGATE. “I think those problems might be incurable.”

Federal planning for an ICE facility in the area dates to 2020. GSA revived the effort in 2024 and leased the property in January 2025. Development began in April, according to the complaint, and investigators later documented a new privacy fence, construction equipment, debris and dismantled greenhouses. Work halted during the summer pending Lee’s ruling.

Despite the project’s location and the ensuing litigation being laid out in public record, ICE declined to acknowledge the Gilroy site in a statement to SFGATE. 

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“ICE will not confirm office locations as our officers are facing a coordinated campaign of violence against them,” DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Chandler Rebel told SFGATE in an email. 

Rebel defended the property as a result of ICE’s workforce expansion under President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, which allocated nearly $30 billion for ICE hiring, training and immigration detention capacity.

“We have an additional 12,000 ICE officers and agents on the ground across the country,” Rebel said. “That’s a 120% increase in our workforce.” SFGATE could not independently verify those figures. 

State and county officials said ICE’s need for more facilities does not exempt the agency from complying with the law.

“No one is above the law — not even the federal government,” Bonta said in a statement following Lee’s ruling. “This ruling sends a clear message: California will hold the federal government accountable and protect our communities, our environment, and the rule of law.”

‘They messed with the wrong county’

In Gilroy and surrounding communities, the project has fueled months of organized opposition. Armendariz said organizers from Watsonville, Hollister, Santa Cruz, Salinas and elsewhere have joined labor, immigrant-rights and environmental groups in demonstrations and other efforts against the facility, with concerns ranging from immigration enforcement to potential effects on nearby agricultural land and Llagas Creek.

“We have families right next door to that property. We’ve got farmworkers right next door to that property,” Armendariz said. “When you start messing with the soil, you start dusting up. You’re putting all these families at risk, no matter where they are politically, no matter what their immigration status is.” 

For now, the project remains stalled in court. The injunction does not end the project or resolve the lawsuit, but it pauses construction, demolition and development while the case proceeds. 

Lee’s order allows federal officials to conduct an environmental review and consult with state and local governments, and it requires the parties to propose the injunction’s final scope by Sept. 30.

Armendariz said organizers plan to keep up that pressure as the legal fight continues.

“I hope that our community continues to mobilize and organize to the extent that they get tired of us and just give up,” she said. “They messed with the wrong county, to be honest. We are such a well-resourced, well-represented county. We’ve been organizing politically and in the community for generations.”