REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Action on a Council Written Request (Council Policy 030) Submitted by Vice Mayor Gonzalez to Place an Item on a Future Agenda to Discuss Adopting an Urgency Ordinance to Establish a Temporary Moratorium on Detention Centers
Report
BACKGROUND
Council Policy 030 (Adding an Item on the Agenda) sets forth the procedure for written petitions. A member of the Council may submit a written request for inclusion of an item on a future City Council agenda. Prior to submitting a Council Item Request form, the Member shall discuss the proposed request with the City Manager (and/or the City Attorney, as appropriate). If City staff’s response does not satisfy the Member’s request, the Member may submit the Council Item Request form for placement on a future City Council agenda. Once the City Clerk’s Office receives the Council Item Request form, it should immediately be forwarded to the City Manager for placement on an agenda, if possible, within two (2) Council meetings after original receipt of the original request by the City Clerk’s Office.
DISCUSSION
On November 3, 2026, Vice Mayor Gonzalez requested that an item be placed on a future meeting agenda to consider adopting an Urgency Ordinance of the City of Santa Clara establishing a temporary moratorium on the filing, acceptance, processing, or approval of applications for, and the establishment or operation of, detention or custodial detention facilities within the City of Santa Clara, pending study of appropriate zoning and land use regulations.
In February 2026, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced its intent to expand U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention capacity. Since then, ICE has moved to establish two immigration processing and detention facilities in the Bay Area: one on Holsclaw Road in unincorporated Santa Clara County near Gilroy, and another at a shuttered federal correctional facility in Dublin in Alameda County.
The County of Sant...
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