Protesters say ICE presence in Oakland is keeping immigrants from social services
on October 27, 2026
Activists gathered in a parking lot at the Eastmont Town Center in Oakland on Sunday to demand that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement not be allowed into the social services center or any healthcare facility, arguing that recent ICE presence in the area has made people fearful to seek help there.
People dressed in hospital gowns lay on the ground in front of symbolic tombstones near a sign that read “ICE is a public health issue.” Other protesters wore signs around their necks displaying the names and photos of people who have died in ICE custody.
Eastmont Town Center is an important hub of resources, with one of the few pharmacies in the neighborhood. The Alameda Health System has a wellness center there where people can access basic health care. The county’s Social Services Agency is also there, offering Medi-Cal assistance and other services.
“When ICE is allowed in spaces like Eastmont, it negatively impacts our community’s ability to safely access essential services,” Gabriela Galicia, executive director of the Street Level Health Project in Oakland, which promotes health access for immigrant communities, said to a crowd of around 50 protesters.
The protest, organized by advocacy organization Immigrant Defense Committee, followed warnings that ICE officers may be using an Eastmont Town Center parking lot to transfer detainees.
Since December, Galicia said, the Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership’s rapid-response hotline — for which the Street Level Health Project is a dispatcher — has received several reports of ICE officers using the parking lot as a staging area. A person detained by ICE in June told ACILEP they were transported to the parking lot before being taken to ICE’s San Francisco processing center, he said.
After hearing about ICE presence there this summer, Galicia said some community members were concerned about whether it was still safe to go to Eastmont Town Center, which houses a range of Alameda County social services, including food and medical assistance and aging services.
“Many have and will continue to cancel health and social services appointments because they are afraid of being separated from their families,” Galicia told protesters.
Similar concerns have been raised about Highland Hospital in Oakland. A man reportedly was taken there with fractured ribs after allegedly being tackled and by ICE agents seeking to detain him in Emeryville on Oct. 16. ACILEP accused agents of using excessive force in that case, as well as during the arrest of a person in Oakland the same day who was taken to a hospital in San Francisco. ACILEP has said Alameda County has seen a surge of ICE arrests over the last several weeks.
Since then, Galicia said she’s heard accounts of people avoiding Highland Hospital for fear of ICE presence there.
Alameda Health System, which oversees Highland Hospital, said in a statement Friday that it has protocols in place to respond to ICE presence at its facilities, and that it reinforce those protocols through staff training and exercises.
“AHS facilities are used to provide health care services and are not used as staging areas, processing locations, or operational bases for immigration enforcement activities,” the statement read.
A protester who said she is a nurse at Highland Hospital claimed the staff there has not been adequately trained in how to deal with ICE. The nurse, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation from her employer, said the ICE presence at the hospital this month has created a stressful atmosphere.
Immigrant Defense Committee said it has reached out to Oakland and Alameda County officials to discuss ways to keep ICE out, but said it may be up to the building owner, Tidewater Capital. The committee is seeking a meeting with Tidewater, which did not respond to Oakland North’s request for comment.
Protesters hope Sunday’s demonstration spurs action. Aileen Joy, who wore a shirt to the protest that read “Arrest Trump not Migrants,” said the recent arrests have her concerned about residents in the area.
“I just want to make sure that we all keep each other safe,” she said.
Día de los Muertos altars honor strangers as well as loved ones at Oakland Museum
Oakland North welcomes comments from our readers, but we ask users to keep all discussion civil and on-topic. Comments post automatically without review from our staff, but we reserve the right to delete material that is libelous, a personal attack, or spam. We request that commenters consistently use the same login name. Comments from the same user posted under multiple aliases may be deleted. Oakland North assumes no liability for comments posted to the site and no endorsement is implied; commenters are solely responsible for their own content.
