photo credit: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Like Santa Rosa, this week the City of Cotati explored what steps it can take should a surge of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrive in Sonoma County.

Reaffirming what's already on the books was key to the variety of options Cotati's city manager Damien O'Bid laid out for the city council at the March 24th special meeting.

The council and Cotati's Community-Police Advisory Committee say they want to prepare the city of 7,500 residents if ICE initiates immigration raids locally; like what happened in Minneapolis.

O'Bid said Cotati is already subject to multiple state laws which prohibit local enforcement from cooperating with ICE.

"So there's the Values Act, the Truth Act, more recently there's the No Secret Police Act," O'bid said. "Then there's also just sort of underlying all these, [and] this conversation tonight, there is the California Duty to Intercede Law."

Each of those laws outline how local governments and law enforcement in California can interact with federal immigration enforcement agents. The California Values and Truth Act were passed during the first Trump administration.

O'Bid said one thing the city can do, is simply reiterate it's commitment to complying with those laws.

Another move that's been adopted by other cities, in and outside California, is barring ICE from using city properties.

"It's clear that the city can limit access to non-public areas," O'Bid said. "So, locked areas such as like the back parking lot in the police station or the public works corporation yard, which is fenced. Any city offices, basically anywhere where the general public wouldn't go. It's easy to limit federal agencies, restrict their ability to access those areas. Our ability to limit access to public spaces is legally debatable."

Cotati leaders stressed the need for unity with neighboring cities and the County of Sonoma in any response to federal immigration actions, but did not make any official declarations. Cotati's city council is expected to officially outline a response plan in the weeks ahead.