A 26-acre California site was being turned into an ICE detention facility without a full environmental review; a federal judge has now halted construction until the government completes the required analysis/Image: Reuters
The dispute centres on a 24.5-acre property in an unincorporated area of Santa Clara County that the federal government leased in January 2025 for use as a potential ICE holding facility. The federal government said the holding facility would accommodate up to 10 people, although its attorneys did not commit to a maximum occupancy figure, according to court filings. The ICE office would employ about 50 immigration agents, with approximately 60 people potentially visiting for daily check-ins. Bonta and Santa Clara County filed their lawsuit in June 2026, seeking to stop the project over alleged violations of federal and state laws.
Lee rejected that position, describing the argument as “absurd and contradicted by the record”, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Bonta said the administration had attempted to advance the project without complying with environmental safeguards or consulting affected communities. State and county officials argued that construction began without the required environmental assessment or consultation with local authorities. In her ruling, Lee found that the county and state had identified specific environmental harms that could result from the development. The federal government, meanwhile, had not demonstrated that delaying construction would significantly obstruct immigration enforcement or cause substantial economic hardship. Federal lawyers had described the work as an office relocation from Morgan Hill and argued that it did not require an environmental review. Their legal challenge cited the National Environmental Policy Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act, the Administrative Procedure Act and California’s Williamson Act.
A federal judge has halted construction of a planned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility near Gilroy, California, ruling that the federal government must address environmental review requirements before the project can proceed.