ICE relocates some resources to Morgan Hill

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is relocating some resources to South Santa Clara County. An Enforcement and Removal Operations sub-office is now located in Morgan Hill.

ERO Officers are tasked with identifying, arresting and removing people who enter the country illegally, including those who post a threat to national security or are a risk to public safety. The new office will oversee operations that span from Bakersfield to the Oregon border and across the ocean from Hawaii to Saipan and Guam.

ICE officials say the facility is not, and will not become, a detention center. In a statement to KION, they say “Anyone arrested by ICE, who will be in the agency’s custody for more than 12 hours, will be transferred to a detention facility.”

The closest ICE detention centers are in Contra Costa County and Bakersfield, but people can be taken to other facilities.

Like other ERO offices, this location must have a secure area for interviewing and holding people, so there are plans to add temporary holding rooms.

Morgan Hill native Imelda Rodriguez said while she understands undocumented immigrants may be afraid of an ICE presence in town, it’s a good idea to get criminals out.

“They would remove them,” Rodriguez said. “They would not commit the crimes here. That’s a good thing.”

One undocumented immigrant we met in Salinas said he’s not only concerned about his future, but others in the community.

“It makes me sad,” Jorge Zarate said. “Not just for me but for everybody else here because there’s a lot of us here, right?”