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More than two dozen people addressed the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to oppose the board’s request for data on violent crimes in the county committed by those targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The speakers at the Nov. 3 meeting said producing this data could weaken the county’s non-cooperation with ICE ordinance.
“This request is rooted in anti-immigrant sentiment and in the myth that the justice system, especially here in San Mateo County, is fair and blind to race and class,” said Charisse Domingo, a member of Silicon Valley Debug, a nonprofit focused on community-based justice. “ICE says they’re going after the most ‘dangerous,’ but that’s exactly the opposite.”
The criticism comes after the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors approved in Oct. 20 a request for data on violent crime convictions by those requested by ICE to be detained. While the decision to gather data does not change the county’s ordinance, opponents worry it could. At the meeting, Corzo warned that doing so would open a “can of worms” and take “steps toward amending our existing ordinances around these reports and our non-collaboration with ICE projects.”
Mueller defended the request for data, saying “there’s not any ultimate decision being made” and that the board doesn’t “even know” what information will be in the report.
At the meeting, supervisors heard a report on immigration detainers from the Sheriff’s Office, which showed that ICE made 1,666 requests from March 2025 to September 2026 to the county jail and probation department, and that none were acted upon.
Supervisor Jackie Speier asked the Sheriff’s Office to gather data on individuals whom ICE requested to detain, and how many have had criminal convictions and violent felonies, what the felonies were and whether the individual committing them was a repeat offender.
At least some of the data has already been publicly reported by the Deportation Data Project, a program at UC Berkeley and UCLA that uses public records litigation to obtain, post and analyze U.S. government immigration enforcement data.
The project found that of 754 requests between January and August 2026 made by ICE to the San Mateo County Jail to hold a person on a detainer or for a notification of their release date and time — six were convicted of a violent crime.
Two convictions were for a robbery, one in 2006, one in 2010; two were for aggravated assault with a weapon, one in 2024, the other against a public officer in 2022; and two were for assault involving bodily force, both in 2021.
Debate over data
During the Oct. 20 meeting, Corzo said she thought the board should wait to make decisions related to ICE data until the county sheriff and the fifth supervisor, David Canepa, were in the room.
The initial non-cooperation with ICE ordinance was enacted in 2023. At the time, Supervisor Ray Mueller was the only dissenting voice, arguing that the county should amend it to allow cooperation in cases that involve rape, murder and child molestation.
The immigration detainer report is a newer requirement that supervisors added on Dec. 2, 2025, under which the Sheriff’s Office must share civil immigration detainer requests and any communications related to immigration authorities quarterly.
The supervisors voted 3-1 to request additional violent crime data on Oct. 20, with Corzo dissenting. Supervisor David Canepa was absent.
At the start of the meeting, Speier requested the report on immigration detainers be pulled from the consent agenda because she was “really quite alarmed” by its findings. She later asked Sheriff’s Capt. Bill Fogarty whether any people named in ICE requests had been convicted of violent felonies. Fogarty said some have been charged with violent felonies, but not convicted.
Mueller said he wanted to see the data too and clarified that it would just involve those convicted of serious and violent felonies under the law.
California state law classifies 46 kinds of serious felonies, which include murder, rape, robbery, arson and selling methamphetamine to a minor.
Supervisors respond
The Pulse asked Mueller and Corzo questions about the board’s discussion on Oct. 20. Speier could not be reached for comment.
In response to the concern that the data could be used to reinforce allegations by President Donald Trump’s administration that undocumented immigrants are dangerous, Mueller noted the board’s efforts to protect the county’s undocumented community, and that “good governance starts with having accurate, complete facts.”
“We should never try to hide the truth from ourselves or our constituents,” he added.
Corzo said she is concerned about the fear and harm caused by the president’s so-called “deportation machine,” and his focus on immigrants of color specifically.
She called the timing of the board members’ request “extremely problematic and tone deaf” as it was two weeks before an election and during “a surge” in ICE presence in California. She also said she doesn’t think gathering the data is a good use of the Sheriff’s Office’s time, and that any discussion of violent crime data should be broader, rather than focused exclusively on immigrants.
Corzo focused on what she considers to be the unfairness of “double punishment,” in which an immigrant might commit the same crime as a citizen and serve the same sentence, but the citizen gets to “go home and continue to provide for their family,” whereas the immigrant could get deported and leave their family without a breadwinner.
Public reaction
On Nov. 3, public commenters urged San Mateo County supervisors to rethink the request for data. Ghassan Shamieh, an immigration rights attorney who represents county residents, said, “Once we make an exception” to the non-cooperation agreement, “that line becomes a negotiation.”
Paul Bocanegra, who advocates for youth in detention, said the board’s request for data on violent immigrants “will be coming primarily of people of color.”
“This is the community that continues to be vulnerable when we unjustly exercise certain powers,” Bocanegra said. “I’m asking the board to please reaffirm its [non-cooperation] position and protect its families, all families, equally.”
Rooted Together, a San Mateo County advocacy group, put out a petition last week calling for supervisors to rescind their request for this data.
“The focus on immigrant individuals and violent crime mirrors narratives that have been used nationally to dehumanize, stoke fear, and justify expanded immigration enforcement that has terrorized their communities,” the petition stated.
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