MARTINEZ — A growing effort from residents to force the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s office to end its collaborations with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency made its presence felt on Tuesday at a Board of Supervisors meeting as Sheriff David Livingston once again defended his policies amid an onslaught of public criticism.
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Testimony from dozens of community members electrified the Contra Costa County supervisors’ chambers for hours, as they demanded that their elected officials hear their call to stop working with ICE on immigration crackdowns in the county – despite the fact that the issue was not even technically on the agenda.
The ramp-up of immigration enforcement operations throughout California this summer has brought new scrutiny to county sheriff’s departments, which are barred from sharing information with ICE except in very limited circumstances, even as ICE pressures local agencies to provide data on inmates’ immigration status.
The newest blowback came less than a month after community anger at the sheriff’s cooperation with ICE erupted at a forum held annually by the Board of Supervisors. There, Livingston shared that his agency received 578 requests from the agency related to detaining individuals in 2024. The sheriff’s office notified ICE in 132 of these instances, which included 96 unique individuals.
Livingston told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that his office made 55 notifications to ICE within the first six months of 2025 – less than 20% of the nearly 300 total requests that the county received from federal law enforcement through June.
Sue Boudreau, a local science educator speaking on behalf of Indivisible West Contra Costa County, told supervisors on Tuesday that there is a need for clearer, enforceable oversight policies to help counter the “climate of mistrust” around the sheriff – an atmosphere that she said exacerbates fears that chill social engagement and even reports of crime to law enforcement.
“The threat to our community is mainly fear,” she said. When children stop attending school, patients hesitate to seek out health care or residents resist reporting crime to law enforcement, Boudreau, herself an immigrant, said “all of these things lead to a breakdown of civil society and the chaos that that can engender.”
Criticism of Livingston at the meeting came not just from the public, but from the board itself.
Supervisor John Gioia went as far as proposing additional oversight for the Sheriff’s office, tapping either civilian oversight or an inspector general.
“There is something different about these times,” said Gioia. “Look, I’ve been on this board 26 years. I have never seen this type of crisis in our democracy affecting us and communities – I hear this from the community I represent every day. The future of our democracy is in our collective hands. Another branch of government or the courts isn’t going to solve this crisis. It’s going to be us.”
However, his motion to put such an oversight consideration on a future agenda failed to garner enough votes.
The board has also so far rejected the call from some community members to make the county a “sanctuary” from immigration enforcement. Board Chair Candace Andersen expressed concern that the growing momentum for such a designation could attract the ire of the Trump administration, which has threatened local governments that declare themselves sanctuaries.
“My big concern, I will continue to articulate,” said Andersen, “is I do not want to have a target put on our backs and have benefits stripped from the very immigrants we’re trying to protect.”
Andersen rejected the idea that a sanctuary ordinance is “going to somehow stop ICE from coming into our county.”
However, many community members demanded action. Joshua Anijar, executive director of the Contra Costa Labor Council, which represents thousands of county residents, said lives are in jeopardy while elected leaders debate what to do next.
Anijar, himself a son of an undocumented immigrant, confirmed rumors Gioia said he has heard that some county employees are worried about their physical safety and want guidance about their legal rights to protect families and residents that use county programs and services, whether that’s children enrolled in Head Start or patients being treated within John Muir Health’s hospital network.
“My father was here without papers – we all come to this country in different ways, and we need to make sure that everybody is protected and has a voice and isn’t living in complete fear of being able to not be a part of their community,” said Anijar.
After listening to 74 testimonies in support of additional oversight and guidance, according to Livingston’s personal count, he said he still had to weigh the other 1.2 million residents he represents in Contra Costa County.
“The vast majority of people that I hear from expect to be doing much more than I am, so I think this (discussion) represents a very small viewpoint,” Livingston said. “Most sheriffs are doing exactly what I’m doing.”
When pressed about what residents should do when confronted by federal immigration agents, Livingston said “we’ve advised departments if ICE barges in, there’s remedies after that happens, but you know, we wouldn’t advise staff to, you know, endanger themselves. But it’s basically only if ICE has a legitimate warrant from a court that staff is required to let them in.”
Supervisors accepted the sheriff’s report on his department’s activities and unanimously agreed to refer the discussion to the county’s Equity Committee, which oversees the Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice and other department-wide policies, to craft clear guidance for any department or employee that may encounter ICE.
That Equity Committee’s recommendations may be drafted into an ordinance for the Board of Supervisors to consider in the coming weeks.