photo credit: Anna Zou/County of Sonoma
A screenshot from the July 22, 2025 streaming of a TRUTH Act forum held by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. At the speaker's podium is Concepción Dominguez of Santa Rosa.

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors held a public forum this week looking at local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

The county government’s board chambers were at full capacity for Tuesday night’s TRUTH Act meeting, packed with members of the public wishing to make comments about Sonoma County’s cooperation with ICE. 

California’s Transparent Review of Unjust Transfers and Holds (TRUTH) Act, according the state attorney general’s office, “ensures that local law enforcement agencies provide individuals in their custody with basic due process and information about their rights should federal immigration authorities seek to make contact with them.” 

The law went into effect in 2017, and it requires local governments to hold a yearly public forum if their law enforcement agencies have shared information with ICE, so the public can hear specifics.

Prior to the meeting, county staff emphasized this week’s information-only session was exclusively related to ICE activities in Sonoma County recorded during calendar year 2024, and “does not contemplate or report on ICE actions taken by the current federal administration during calendar year 2025,” according to a staff report included in the meeting packet.

But both in 2024 and currently, county officials like board chair Lynda Hopkins say they have been doing everything they can to limit cooperation with ICE.

“I am very proud to be part of a county, part of a community, and part of a level of government that strongly upholds and respects the rights of immigrants, and recognizes their absolutely vital role in being part and parcel of our community,” Hopkins said.

Sonoma County Sheriff/Coroner Eddie Engram said his office’s policy doesn’t allow for deputies to inquire about an individual’s immigration status. 

He also said that in 2024, ICE made 484 requests in the county, 64 for which the sheriff’s office provided info. 

“ I believe that our policy strikes the correct balance between protecting all the residents of Sonoma County,” Engram said.

Public commenters urged the county to pass a sanctuary ordinance, and pushed for more oversight and stronger protections for undocumented residents.

Ellen Forman Obstler, who described herself as a local resident and former attorney, pointed out California counties only hold TRUTH Act Forums if their county sheriff decides to cooperate with ICE.

Obstler said she thinks holding the forum was simply not enough. 

“Resolutions and initiatives are not protecting our neighbors,” Obstler said. “Please agendize a sanctuary ordinance prohibiting the sheriff and all agencies in the county from providing any information to ICE or any federal agency in the absence of a judicial warrant.”

Concepción Dominguez of Santa Rosa said she’s a family friend of Andy López, the 13-year-old boy fatally shot by a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy in 2013. Dominguez said she attended the forum to advocate for her community.

“ Es muy triste ver todo lo que está pasando a nivel nacional, las redadas, del miedo, el dolor de mi gente y yo espero que esto no pase aquí en Santa Rosa, y que no coopere el sheriff con la migra porque la gente está muy triste, muy espantada, con mucho dolor,” Dominguez said in Spanish at the public comment podium. 

“It’s very upsetting to see everything that’s happening on a national level, the raids, the fear, the pain of my people, and I hope that this doesn’t happen here in Santa Rosa,” Dominguez said.  “And that the sheriff doesn’t cooperate with ICE because the people are very sad, very frightened, with so much pain.”