# How one of the Bay Area’s most heavily Latino cities is fighting back against an ICE facility > Source: > Published: 2026-07-31 12:00:57+00:00 **Getting your** [Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...During a late afternoon on Gilroy’s small downtown strip, the sounds of música urbana and rap blast out of a barbershop academy where young men chat in English and Spanish as they close up shop after a long day of giving customers taper fades. Patrons begin wandering into craft breweries, passing by signs advertising Envios de Dinero — remittances to send back to Mexico and Latin America. Nearby, the scents of carne asada and carnitas waft out of taquerias, inviting those nearby to stop in for a meal. For years, Gilroy has been one of the most heavily Latino cities in the entire Bay Area, with three in five of its residents identifying as Hispanic or Latino. The legacy of Mexican American heritage follows waves of immigrants from Europe and Asia that helped shape and define the city and form the close knit community on the southern edge of the Bay Area. But now, some fear that legacy may be under threat. Ever since [work began on an ICE facility on the outskirts of Gilroy](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/05/14/ice-detention-facility-gilroy-santa-clara-county/) earlier this year, fear has rippled through much of the community. And while [the development is on pause](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/07/13/federal-government-pauses-construction-ice-detention-facility-gilroy/), much of the town is caught between a promise to fight back and the looming threat of immigration enforcement. “Gilroy … we’re a little microcosm of something much bigger. (We have) prospered because the people who come here want a better life, they want to work,” said Susan Voss, museum manager for the Gilroy Museum. “There’s a real immigrant dream.” Gilroy is majority Latino and about half Mexican-American, according to the most recent census. Given the makeup of the community, the threat of the ICE facility hits especially close to home for many who live and work in Gilroy. While immigration enforcement targets those who are in the country illegally, some who are in the country legally, including U.S. citizens, have been caught up in immigration enforcement and many throughout the Bay Area have undocumented family members and loved ones. “I think it’s crazy with the Latino community out here,” said Devin Navarro of the ICE facility, raising his voice over the idle chatter and buzzing of clippers that mark the Gilroy barbershop where he works. “We’re blessed to have the traditional culture that we have. Gilroy is built off the Latino community, whether they have their documentation or not.” The proposed ICE facility, first revealed by news reports based on federal records, prompted swift backlash by the community, with [Santa Clara County and California joining together in a lawsuit to halt the facility](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/10/california-santa-clara-county-sue-to-block-ice-detention-facility-near-gilroy/). Reporting by this news organization showed that, as of May, work was already underway on a planned ICE facility on Santa Clara County land just east of Highway 101 and north of Highway 152. Currently, the federal government has halted construction until Sept. 9 as part of a voluntary deal with the state and county. Blueprints of the proposed facility show a building with multiple holding rooms, an armory and offices, rather than a large-scale detention center. “The construction in Gilroy is not for a detention center,” said ICE spokesperson Jason Sweeney [in a statement to The Sacramento Bee](https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article316706234.html). “It is for an ICE office that will support local operations and the enforcement of federal immigration laws.” The pause has heartened some, but most Gilroyans interviewed want to ensure a wholesale stop, with several citing the violent, military-style operations of ICE agents that have resulted in the[ high-profile killings of multiple people around the country](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/07/13/minnesota-prosecutors-obtain-evidence-immigration-deaths/). Others noted [the abuses of those detained in inhumane conditions](https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/12/26/ice-court-arrests-immigration-bay-area/) or cited [the Supreme Court decision last year](https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/09/08/supreme-court-lifts-restrictions-on-la-immigration-stops-set-after-agents-swept-up-us-citizens/) which allowed ICE officers to use racial profiling, such as appearance, languages spoken and accents in deciding who to detain and interrogate someone. In some families, that’s left them fearful to even go outside, and some are even considering leaving Gilroy or returning to Mexico. “We aren’t free to go out with or without documents,” said Luisa, a community member who declined to give her last name for fear of immigration enforcement, in Spanish, reflecting a commonly voiced concern that Latinos could face discrimination or enforcement activity regardless of their legal status. “It’s worrying for our community and people who look like us.” That fear could have ripple effects in a community that has fought to bring more vibrancy and business to a city with its own set of struggles — from high homelessness to limited access to crucial services. Unencumbered immigration enforcement and the fear it brings could kneecap those efforts, with [a report from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute](https://www.bayareaeconomy.org/files/pdf/FINAL_BayAreaImmigrationStudy_Mar26%202.pdf) estimating that the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda could cause the Bay Area as a whole to lose $67 billion in economic activity. Latin Americans are far from the first immigrants to define Gilroy — or the first to face a threat to their community. Like much of the valley, Gilroy stands on land that was first occupied by the native Amah Mutsun, then taken over by Spanish colonists and later became Mexico. Gilroy’s multi-ethnic roots, however, begin at its inception, when Scotsman John Gilroy became the first English-speaking settler of California, married Maria Clara Ortega – the daughter of a Spanish rancher, and then became a Mexican citizen. The land he owned would later become the home of the namesake town. Later on, the Gold Rush and its aftermath attracted settlers from across the country and around the world to California and later, Gilroy, including Chinese immigrants who grew tobacco and rolled and sold cigars, even establishing a small Chinatown in what is now downtown Gilroy. In the late 1800s however, the Chinese Exclusion Act stifled the thriving community, and other immigrant communities began to make their mark on Gilroy. Italian immigrants became a crucial labor force in the region’s burgeoning fruit industry, joined by immigrants from Japan, Switzerland and elsewhere. Throughout, some descendants of Gilroy and the Mexican families who settled in the area remained, and over time, Mexican immigrant laborers began to make up more and more of the community, with many working on farms and becoming a core part of the fabric of the city. With the city’s past and present immigrant roots in mind, Gilroyans are finding ways to push back against the ICE facility and the fear it has brought. Rebeca Armendariz, a former councilmember and longtime community activist, heads ICE Out of Gilroy, a coalition which has been pushing public leaders to take a stand against the proposed facility. The group has hosted and co-organized over eight protests, marches, rallies and vigils — some attended by hundreds. While the proposed facility is outside of city borders, limiting the city’s ability to intervene, many in the protests have asked the city to join an amicus brief, a legal document to add evidence to the lawsuit against the facility. City leaders have not expressed plans to join the legal filing, arguing that signing on would place a workload on city staff and pull them away from the city’s other needs. “You’re putting 60% of the population in the crosshairs,” said Armendariz of the ICE facility and the refusal to join the legal document. “This community for generations has given us this beautiful culture, this beautiful agriculture and we don’t take a stand for them.” Instead, on June 1, city leaders unanimously adopted a resolution opposing the construction of a detention center outside of Gilroy. [Mayor Greg Bozzo has led several events](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/05/28/ice-center-gilroy-community-reaction/) with the city’s police chief at predominantly Spanish-speaking churches and community groups affirming that Gilroy city officials and law enforcement would not collaborate with immigration enforcement. He notes that the community and Santa Clara Valley as a whole is full of people deeply affected by the issue: from those who are recent immigrants or whose parents or grandparents immigrated to the Japanese residents whose families were taken away to internment camps during World War II to the Latino community that has disproportionately been targeted by recent immigration enforcement. Late Monday, as the sun set over the rolling hills and suburban streets of Gilroy, dozens of Gilroyans, faith leaders and allies gathered to pray for the immigrants in the community and offer messages of strength and resistance in the face of the ICE facility before many went to city hall to pressure local leaders. There, friends and family members sang together in Spanish and English, embracing each other in greeting, checking in about their children or their health and sharing their mix of hope and trepidation with one another. For Daisy, a Gilroyan who declined to share her last name because of her parents’ immigration status, the entire timbre of her family life has shifted since the announcement of the ICE facility, with her parents weighing who might take care of their children if they are deported and even considering taking the family back to Mexico. But even in the midst of that fear, she and others hope that they can keep the facility at bay and preserve the community they call their own. “Gilroy is my home, the peace that we have here is what makes it feel like home,” she said in Spanish. “I want to keep it that way.”