Alameda County Together for All (ACT for All) is an ad hoc committee started by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors in response to actions made by the Trump Administration. The committee aims to protect all members of Alameda County, but especially the communities under attack by recent policies. ACT for All is led by Nikki Fortunato Bas as chair and Elisa Marquez as vice chair. Fortunato Bas serves on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors for the fifth district and Marquez for the second district.
“Residents across Alameda County are experiencing the impact of the President’s flurry of executive orders. Thousands of immigrants have been arrested, including those who do not even have any criminal history. You are not alone, and the purpose of this committee is to make sure that you know that we are prepared to fight and defend our values as a county, ... inclusion, equity, and opportunity,” Fortunato Bas said at an initial committee meeting on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025.
According to the District Five website, (district5.acgov.org/act-for-all/), the committee is modeled after a 2017 Ad Hoc Committee for Immigrant and Refugee Rights by late Supervisors Wilma Chan and Richard Valle, which was created in response to Trump’s first term. The committee aims to focus on information sharing and coordination throughout Alameda County communities and government agencies, protect social and health programs/services, and establish funds to support deportation defense, county initiatives, and programs. “The 2017 committee was only dealing with immigrant and refugee issues at the time, and we still think it’s critically important to address those issues, given that asylum seekers are a large diverse community, and we also are seeing that a lot of other attacks that this administration is coming strong with right now is reproductive care and justice, as well as overall gender justice issues,” said Cinthya Muñoz Ramos, the Legislative Director for Fortunato Bas. On Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025, Fortunato Bas and Marquez presented a proposal to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors allocating $3.5 million of emergency funds to “support rapid response, community education, legal aid, and support services for immigrant and refugee communities.” The funds also included boosting the Alameda County Office of the Public Defender’s Immigration Unit. The proposal was approved.
Alameda County Immigration Legal Education Partnership was declared to launch by the ACT for All committee on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. Seven hundred thousand dollars out of the emergency fund allocation will go to providing the “rapid response hotline, Know Your Rights trainings, pre-emptive legal services and community volunteer network response coordination,” according to an Instagram post by Fortunato Bas. This is a multilingual rapid response hotline dedicated to people who have seen, interacted with, or been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The website page also has access to surrounding counties’ similar hotlines, like Contra Costa County, San Mateo County, and more. According to their website, acilep.org, their mission is “to ensure that persons facing detention, deportation or immigration-related emergencies have access to high-quality legal services, community education, and resources to fight for their rights.” Hotlines like these stopped being serviced after President Trump’s first term. “Just because we have a Democratic administration in office doesn’t mean that we have to let our guard down and undo a lot of systems. We need to figure out a way to stay moving forward. The path is already there, we don’t have to create a whole new path eight years later,” Ramos said.
Currently, Alameda County has a “Zero Contact Policy” with ICE, which was reviewed by Yesenia Sanchez, the Alameda County Sheriff, at the Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025 meeting. According to an Instagram post by Fortunato Bas, “The sheriff’s office will not communicate with ICE except when a criminal warrant has been signed by a judge.”
The Public Defender of Alameda County, Brendon D. Woods, said at the initial meeting, “I truly appreciate the fact that we are doing this (committee), I am also terrified and devastated at the fact that we are doing this again. I wish that we weren’t here, but I want to get to work.” There was another meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, detailing a status report. Future meetings will cover protections of immigrant and refugee communities, and LGBTQIA+ and reproductive rights.