Incensed by the surge in violent immigration operations the Trump administration is carrying out nationwide, Marin residents are protesting the county’s participation in a federal grant program that incentivizes cooperation with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A crowd of more than 100 protesters gathered online and in the aisles of the Showcase Theatre in San Rafael last week to urge the Marin County Board of Supervisors to halt—or at least schedule a discussion on—the sheriff’s office’s participation in the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, or SCAAP.
During the public comment period, citizens took turns speaking in a session that lasted more than an hour.
“We are here because we stand with our immigrant neighbors,” said Pastor Scott Clark of San Anselmo. “Daily we see the unconstitutional cruelty of ICE in Minneapolis, but what we’re not seeing are the thousands of families who are hiding in their homes because they’re scared to death of the United States government. That cannot happen in Marin.”
The SCAAP program provides funds to offset officer salary expenses for jailing immigrants without permanent legal status who have at least one felony or two misdemeanor convictions and are held for a minimum of four consecutive days.
To qualify for funding, local law enforcement must provide a detainee’s name, date of birth, birth country and other identifying information with the Department of Justice.
Other California counties, including Santa Cruz and Los Angeles, have refused SCAAP funding. San Francisco has opted out of SCAAP for years, heeding a sanctuary ordinance barring city employees from using funds or resources to assist ICE unless required by federal or state law.
Marin complies with S.B. 54, the California Values Act, which limits law enforcement’s cooperation with ICE. A sanctuary ordinance it passed in 2020 fell short of barring local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE; instead, supervisors merely urged the office to limit communication.
In 2024, the office shared information with ICE about 14 people booked into the county jail; the previous year, it shared information about 13. Data for 2025 has not yet been released, but Lisa Bennett, executive director of the Marin Rapid Response Network, said 17 Marin residents have been detained by ICE since January 2025.
Under current county policy, the sheriff’s office may notify ICE only when a person has been arrested on charges involving serious or violent felonies. Deputies are also barred from arresting or detaining someone based only on their immigration status or on a civil immigration violation.
The policy further states that requests for ICE detainers—which hold someone beyond their scheduled release so immigration agents can take them into custody—are honored only if accompanied by a judicial warrant or probable cause of a federal criminal immigration offense.
Before the passage of the California Values Act, the sheriff’s office made dramatically more ICE notifications, with 137 made in 2017.
The office’s participation in SCAAP produces just a fraction of its budget. According to the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the office received $461,446 in 2022, $416,677 in 2023 and $338,136 in 2024 through the program. Last year, that funding amounted to roughly 0.7 percent of the sheriff’s office’s $51.5 million budget.
Last week’s demonstration was mobilized by the Marin chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and Fuerzas Unidas, a Latino advocacy group. Working alongside other community groups, they have collected over 4,700 signatures petitioning supervisors and the sheriff’s office to stop all cooperation with ICE’s dragnet.
After protesters assailed the Board of Supervisors at a meeting last month, County Executive Derek Johnson said the matter of SCAAP funding would be referred to the county’s newly formed Civilian Oversight Commission.
The commission, which held its first public meeting last August and is in the process of finalizing its bylaws, was created to monitor sheriff’s office policies and procedures and to review civilian complaints. But it’s still finding its footing—and some residents believe it is taking too long.
“The Civilian Oversight Commission needs to understand that this is urgent, urgent, urgent,” said Mary Morgan, a Point Reyes Station resident and member of Indivisible West Marin. “We don’t have the luxury of moving slowly.”
Last year, the county acted swiftly in other areas. As immigration enforcement intensified nationwide, the board approved $500,000 in spending to support local organizations providing legal and financial assistance to immigrants. Marin was also among 48 jurisdictions that joined a lawsuit filed by San Francisco and Santa Clara Counties challenging federal actions that attempt to force local agencies to act as immigration enforcers.
In January, Community Action Marin used county funds to launch an immigrant emergency assistance fund for families who have experienced sudden financial hardship because of a family member being detained. To reach residents across the county, the organization partnered with the West Marin Immigrant Rapid Response Network, which will refer local families in need.
“We’re not against the law,” said Alma Sanchez, who directs the network. “Honestly, there’s not much we can do about the sheriff’s cooperation with ICE. What we can do is be prepared by reinforcing our knowledge of our constitutional rights.”
While the county has made a point of defending its immigrant population through investments in service providers, some critics argue the sheriff’s office’s ongoing participation in SCAAP belies those efforts.
“I think there’s a contradiction between what the board and the county say and what they do, and I think there’s a contradiction between the values of the vast majority of Marin voters and the actions of our elected representatives—our sheriff’s office in particular,” said Curt Ries, who co-chairs the Marin chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. “We’re in a moment where every weekend some terrible thing shows up on our phones that this rogue agency is doing. There’s a moral urgency to this that’s not just fear mongering.”
Protesters plan to continue pressuring supervisors until the issue is put on the agenda. Ms. Morgan said Indivisible West Marin is also planning to attend March’s TRUTH Act forum to voice dissent. The 2016 law—formally known as the Transparent Review of Unjust Transfers and Holds Act—requires local governments to hold a public meeting at which law enforcement discloses any access it has granted to federal immigration authorities.
“I’m hoping there will be a large turnout to once again press the supervisors to ask, ‘Is this a good thing for Marin or not?’” Ms. Morgan said. “If any aspect of our government here in Marin County is cooperating with ICE, it’s a message that our government can’t be trusted, and that’s a terrible thing.”