Hundreds packed along the sidewalks surrounding the Milpas Street roundabout Friday evening, in a show of solidarity with the city’s immigrant community. | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

Nearly 300 people packed along the sidewalks surrounding the Milpas Street roundabout Friday evening in what was a show of solidarity with the city’s immigrant community in keeping with Santa Barbara’s deep history of activism, with an unmistakable Eastside flair. The crowd proudly flew Mexican, Honduran, and Guatemalan flags, chanted “Si Se Puede,” and held handwritten signs aloft as an endless wave of cars honked in agreement.

The group was made up of a large portion of Santa Barbara’s Eastside Latino residents, their families, and community members showing up in support for the undocumented community in response to recent reports of (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) ICE operations and arrests on the Central Coast.

Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

As the sun set and night fell over the corner, the energy continued to build as more people trickled in to join in the demonstration. Lowriders bounced on hydraulics, and motorcycles burned rubber as they passed by, cheered on by the happy people in attendance. All around, the signs in the crowd made it clear how the people felt about President Donald Trump’s recent push to deport millions: “Stop Terrorizing Families,” one sign read; “Immigrants Make America Great,” read another.

One woman draped in a flag with both the U.S. and Mexican colors held a sign saying, “Families Belong Together,” while right next to her another sign said: “My parents fought for my future, now I will fight for theirs.”

The protest against ICE was organized by a local family of brothers and sisters who were born and raised in Santa Barbara and wanted to get people together to respond to all the fear and panic that have been spreading in the community.

Jennifer Rojas, one of the event organizers, said the protest started as a small idea to pass out the now ubiquitous red “Know Your Rights” cards and a social media post inviting people to the demonstration at the Milpas roundabout.

“We just wanted to raise the voices for all those people who can help all these families,” she said.

Together with her siblings, they went to Office Max and, with their own money, printed out hundreds of laminated cards. “It feels good,” she said. “We actually got about 600 cards laminated so that we can give them out to everybody in the community.”

The protest itself was cheerful and powerful, with no major issues from the demonstrators or from law enforcement who watched from a nearby freeway ramp, allowing the protest to continue peacefully for several hours.

Jacqueline Inda, Director of La Casa de la Raza, said the protest was encouraging but bittersweet. “It’s great to see folks from this neighborhood out,” she said. “But also a little bit sad, because it’s the new reality that we’re facing.”

[Click to enlarge]: Hundreds packed along the sidewalks surrounding the Milpas Street roundabout Friday evening, in a show of solidarity with the city’s immigrant community. | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom


La Casa de la Raza, a community resource that originally opened during the Chicano Power Movement in 1970, has started a new chapter, Inda says, offering much needed assistance to families in fear of deportation.

Inda calls this new initiative the “New Age Underground Railroad,” which she says is a “force of people helping other people,” and a connection between the undocumented community and “allies” who want to support.

This includes getting donated items to people, helping community members who have been displaced find shelter with allies willing to open up their homes, or helping find loved ones who have gone missing or have been detained.

“We have a lot of people in the community that are saying, ‘Hey, my cousin never doesn’t answer the phone, and now isn’t answering the phone — we don’t know where they are. Can you help us locate them?’”

Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

Councilmember Oscar Gutierrez, who represents the Westside district — home to Santa Barbara’s second-largest concentration of Latino residents — said it was inspiring to see so many people willing to “come together and help each other out.”

In the Westside neighborhood, Gutierrez says, the community has been living in “so much fear” that some businesses have reported a drop in revenue because regular patrons felt unsafe to go out in public. “It’s really starting to affect our local economy,” he said.

 “There’s a lot of paranoia happening right now as to what they can and can’t do or say, or where they can go, and it’s sad,” Gutierrez continued. “I just want to encourage people to reach out to their elected officials and nonprofit organizations to ask for help and clarity, because otherwise we won’t be able to live a normal life.”

Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

Last week, reports of ICE operations in Santa Barbara’s Westside and Eastside neighborhoods sparked a wave of panic, and while local officials have stated that immigration enforcement was specifically looking for individuals with active arrest warrants, immigration advocates reported several instances of entire households being picked up in what are known as “collateral arrests.”

No ICE sightings have been confirmed in the city of Santa Barbara since Tuesday, January 28, when 805 UndocuFund reported uniformed agents on Milpas Street. However, on Friday, just an hour before the protest in Santa Barbara, ICE was confirmed 55 miles away in Lompoc.

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