By George Kelly, POSTED: 05/02/2016 04:02:56 PM PDT | UPDATED: ABOUT 5 HOURS AGO

OAKLAND -- With banners and loudspeakers, about 150 protesters representing a coalition of groups gathered Monday morning to garner support for policy changes in the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.

Speakers with Oakland Sin Fronteras, the Anti-Police Terror Project, Causa Justa, the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, and several other community organizations said they had signed a letter April 14 to Sheriff Gregory Ahern.

They asked the sheriff's office to stop working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on deportation initiatives, withdraw from the annual Urban Shield preparedness exercise and training program, cancel a planned expansion of the county's Santa Rita Jail and end the jail's contract with medical services company Corizon, claiming medical neglect and understaffing.

"A lot of community members gathered together to be in solidarity with each other, to demand the end of mass deportation as we've seen increase in the last couple of years, as well as an end to state-sponsored terror," said Omar Ali of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center.

Sheriff's Sgt. J.D. Nelson pushed back on the demands Monday afternoon, saying that Corizon's contract to provide medical services was approved by Alameda County supervisors.

"We manage it, granted, but the board is the one that makes that decision," he said.

Nelson said his office plans to continue cooperating with ICE on its Priority Enforcement Program and operating Urban Shield. He said that Ahern has no plans to step down.

"He is elected and was elected by many tens of thousands of people and meets with groups constantly, but he doesn't necessarily acquiesce to demand letters," Nelson said.

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-cou...olicy-concerns