Santa Clara County officials, community organizers and residents gathered at the county government center in San Jose May 14 to oppose a federal plan to build an immigration detention facility on agricultural land just outside Gilroy city limits, vowing to fight the project in court and in the streets.
The rally came days after public records surfaced showing the General Services Administration awarded a $26.5 million contract in January 2025 to an LLC connected to Elmwood Capital Group, a Beverly Hills-based real estate firm connected to other ICE detention centers, for a property at 7240 Holsclaw Road.
The unincorporated parcel is roughly 11 miles south of an existing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Morgan Hill. County officials said they were not notified of the federal government’s intention to build the facility.
Santa Clara County Executive James Williams said the county’s zoning ordinance does not permit detention facilities on the property and that his office intends to enforce that.
“We oppose any effort to build an immigration detention center anywhere in our county or across the Bay Area,” Williams said. “Our County Counsel’s Office has a long track record of protecting our immigrant community against unlawful attacks by the federal government, and we know it will do everything in its power to do so in this case as well.”
County Counsel Tony LoPresti said his office has successfully litigated against federal immigration policy in multiple past cases, including challenging attempts to strip funding from sanctuary jurisdictions, defending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and opposing a citizenship question in the U.S. Census.
“For 15 years, we have collaborated with community organizations to develop the strongest non-cooperation—so-called ‘sanctuary’—policies in the nation,” LoPresti said. “Why do we go to battle on these issues? Because immigrants are the bedrock of our community. Because an attack on the immigrant community is an attack on Santa Clara County.”
District 1 Supervisor Sylvia Arenas, who represents Gilroy, Morgan Hill and South San Jose, said the proposed facility represents an escalation of what she characterized as a federal campaign targeting immigrant families.
“An attack on immigrants is an attack on all families,” Arenas said. “While they are trying to build in my district, the entire county will stand in opposition. We will fight any detention facility with every possible tool at our disposal, and we are absolutely ready to send our County Counsel to battle this out in court.”
Gilroy City Council Member Zach Hilton issued a formal statement opposing the project.
“The county’s zoning ordinance doesn’t allow this use,” Hilton said, “I have full confidence that they will not allow this project to move forward.”
Community organizer Rebeca Armendariz, a former Gilroy City Council member, said construction workers were on the property this week installing privacy fencing and demolishing existing greenhouses.
“If their plans are to build an ICE facility there, our plans are to stop them,” Armendariz said.
Architect Reid Lerner, a longtime Gilroy resident familiar with the property, raised separate practical objections. The Holsclaw Road parcel sits in a flood zone, he said, making construction both costly and complicated. The site lacks connections to municipal sewer and water infrastructure, and the access road is narrow and winding, running alongside Llagas Creek.
“I don’t think it’s a good choice for building such a facility from a technical standpoint,” Lerner said.
Lerner also recalled this is not Elmwood Capital Group’s first attempt to acquire a Gilroy property. During the first Trump administration, the firm sought to purchase another plot for GSA purposes, but the owner declined to sell.
Gilroy Mayor Greg Bozzo, writing on Facebook, called the development a “disappointment,” though he noted the site falls outside city jurisdiction. He reinforced that the Gilroy Police Department has not and will not participate in federal immigration enforcement operations.
“In these difficult and uncertain times, I will do everything I can as Mayor of Gilroy to alleviate the fear and anxiety felt by so many,” Bozzo wrote. “It is promising to know that so many people in South Santa Clara County care about each other. If any community can get through these times together, it’s ours.”
