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MARTINEZ — Contra Costa County Sheriff David Livingston today announced his department is ending its contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to house undocumented immigrants at the West County Detention Facility in Richmond.

At a press conference alongside supervisors John Gioia and Karen Mitchoff, Livingston said he notified ICE of the decision, which will take effect in 120 days from the announcement.

“There was not one single overriding issue that caused the termination of this contract; instead there are many,” Livingston said.

Livingston cited five reasons for the decision: the Board of Supervisors promised to make up for the $2.4 million that will be lost when the contract ends; the number of detainees and the total reimbursement from ICE has fluctuated; county employee costs have increased while reimbursement rates have stayed flat; and the work of sheriff’s deputies has been overshadowed by protests and community tension.

“To be very fair, one has to acknowledge a growing chorus of individuals within and outside the county that have focused on undocumented immigrant issues,” Livingston said.

The facility currently houses 169 undocumented immigrants, and Livingston stated that ICE has pledged to resolve as many pending cases as possible during the 120-day period.

The announcement comes amid a “growing chorus” of protests that had become a constant presence outside the West County Detention Facility. On June 30, thousands of demonstrators showed up at the facility urging the sheriff’s office to end its contract with ICE.

“To the thousands of Contra Costans who have passionately advocated for the end of the detention of immigrants at the West County jail, thank you,” Gioia said. “Thank you for your consistent and loud advocacy. Your actions do make a difference.”

Gioia, who represents West Contra Costa County, declared it a historic day and thanked Livingston for making the decision, which he said was a positive step toward building trust with immigrant families in the county. According to Gioia, 25 percent of the county’s residents are immigrants.

Although Mitchoff too had worked with the sheriff’s office in recent weeks to end the contract, she declared at the press conference that she now opposes the decision because the facility is “a resource for all the undocumented immigrants in the Bay Area.”

“Unfortunately with the closure of this facility, those individuals who ICE is not able to release through the regular process will be sent to other places throughout the United States,” Mitchoff said. “Those same undocumented families that we care about will no longer have easy access to their families during trying times.”

Mitchoff also argued that county taxpayers will bear the burden of plugging the $2.4 million hole in the sheriff’s budget created by the contract’s termination.

With the Richmond jail soon to be off-limits and Sacramento County’s decision last month to end its contract with ICE, the closest facility where undocumented immigrants can be detained will be the Yuba County Jail in Marysville.

Though community organizers and activists supported the decision, the announcement was tempered by calls for detainees to be reunified with families rather than transferred to another facility.

“A just and responsible closure means that everyone detained in West County Detention Facility is released so that they can reunite with their families and have the opportunity to fight their deportation cases with legal representation,” a press release from the Contra Costa Immigrant Rights Alliance (CCIRA) read. “Families belong together in their communities, where they can be safe and thrive, not separated from each other.”

Over the 120-day period, the sheriff’s office will provide legal counsel to detainees without it, Gioia said.

The county provides legal services for families at risk of deportation through the Stand Together Contra Costa program, which is financed in part through AB 109.

The sheriff’s office entered into a contract with the U.S. Marshals Service in 2009 to house undocumented immigrants awaiting hearings at the detention facility. As part of that contract, ICE pays the sheriff’s office $82 per detainee a day.

Through the arrangement with ICE, the sheriff’s office collected around $6 million, netting a profit of $3 million, according to the sheriff’s office website. The sheriff’s office will continue its contract with the U.S. Marshals Service to house federal detainees, but Livingston said there were only five or six such detainees at the facility.

The $2.4 million shortfall in the sheriff’s office will be covered by $900,000 in general fund reserves and $1.5 million in reserve AB 109 funds. Gioia argued that the county is fiscally stable, but Mitchoff said she’s worried about costs in the coming years.