People in six counties around the Bay Area and Watsonville came out on July 3 to voice their disapproval of a federal plan by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to build immigration detention facilities in Gilroy and Dublin.
A crowd of around 20 people lined the Harkins Slough Road overcrossing to Highway 1 for 90 minutes of sign waving for passing motorists, including in large letters, “ICE out of Gilroy.”
“We are out here today because there are two ICE facilities now under construction or almost in operation in northern California,” said Olivia Millard, co-founder of Indivisible Pajaro Valley as she waved a large American flag from the Harkins Slough Bridge above Highway 1. “There haven’t been ICE facilities in northern California yet, and when they have facilities nearby it will mean that they’ll start to fill those facilities.”
The proposed site in Gilroy on Holsclaw Road shows the federal General Services Administration awarded a $26.5 million contract in 2025 to a Beverly Hills-based real estate firm connected to other ICE detention centers.
In a statement emailed to The Pajaronian, ICE said that the construction in Gilroy is for a new office.
“This is not a detention facility,” the statement reads. “The new Gilroy office will enable ICE to support local operations and enhance coordination with regional partners to ensure the enforcement of federal immigration laws at the operating standards of other offices nationwide.”
Sam Earnshaw of Aromas said, “I’m here because I feel we have to keep up our resistance to fascism that is going on in this country now. And coming out to protests like this is one of the many things we can do.”
Millard added that the protest Friday was running simultaneously across 30 bridges in six counties.
The Pajaronian has reached out to ICE for comment.
“ICE is so inhumane,” she said. “They are gulags, they are prison camps, they are ignoring due process. People disappear into the ICE system—they’re often not seen again or shipped off to some country in Africa.
She noted that “we’ve been relatively fortunate” in the Pajaro Valley thus far. “What has been happening in Minnesota might start happening here. That would be horrifying, so we are doing everything that we can to bring attention to this.”
