The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved the Civil Liberties Enforcement and Accountability Rules ordinance, or CLEAR ordinance, to restrict federal immigration agents from accessing non-public county spaces.
It supports efforts to ensure that county resources are not used for immigration raids or to target individuals based on protected characteristics.
“Your rights don’t end when you walk into a county building, and this ordinance makes sure of that,” said Supervisor and Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer, who proposed the CLEAR ordinance.
The ordinance requires:
- Judicial warrants for federal access to non-public areas of county buildings.
- Signs in multiple languages that allow visitors to understand their rights.
- County contractors, grantees and lessees to enforce civil-rights protections.
- Data privacy safeguards as a way to prevent the misuse of sensitive information.
Money for the proposal is part of the fiscal year 2025-26 budget, according to the Wednesday agenda item. “There will be no change in net general fund cost and no additional staff years,” the agenda reads.
The updated policy also requires the sheriff to create a public incident report within three business days of responding to a call for service related to federal immigration activity with the names of the agencies involved, whether a judicial warrant was presented to the sheriff, and personnel details such as badge numbers and agency designations.
Meanwhile, records show that San Diego Sheriff Kelly Martinez has already repeatedly ignored existing restrictions.
The ordinance goes into effect in 30 days.
