How Santa Barbara Is Protecting Residents Facing Fears of Deportation

Community Leaders Address Concerns over Immigration Enforcement at Packed Forum

The Faulkner Gallery at Santa Barbara's Public Library was packed for a public forum, "Protecting our Immigrant Community: How Can Santa Barbara County Help?" on Thursday, February 27. | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

The Faulkner Gallery at the Santa Barbara Central Library was packed to capacity Thursday afternoon for a community forum hosted by the League of Women Voters, intended to address confusion over immigration enforcement and provide information about how the county is protecting residents facing fears of deportation.

The forum — “Protecting our Immigrant Community: How Can Santa Barbara County Help?” — was moderated by County Supervisor Laura Capps, with a panel of experts representing regional advocacy groups, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, and the Public Defender’s Office.

Supervisor Capps said that she has seen firsthand how the rhetoric surrounding the Trump Administration’s push for mass deportations and recent policy changes have forced many in the Latino community to feel afraid, in some cases keeping their children from school or missing doctor’s appointments because they don’t want to risk being picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“We have a lot of chaos right now,” Capps said. “We have a lot of mixed signals, and we’re going to try to clear up some of that.”

Immigration advocates say much of the fear has been caused by uncertainty and unclear information about what is actually happening with regard to immigration enforcement on the Central Coast. Reports of ICE agents being spotted in unmarked vehicles in Santa Barbara neighborhoods have been spread widely on social media, though federal agencies have refused to release information about day-to-day operations, leaving the task of verifying these reports to nonprofit organizations such as 805 UndocuFund and La Casa de la Raza.

805 UndocuFund Executive Director Primitiva Hernandez has been working to provide accurate information about immigration enforcement and arrests on the Central Coast with the 24/7 Rapid Response Hotline. | Credit: Ingrid Bostromv

Supervisor Capps said she hopes people can channel the anxiety they are feeling and help these on-the-ground organizations. “Take that anxiety and turn it into action,” she said.

Primitiva Hernandez, 805 UndocuFund executive director and one of four panelists at the forum, said the organization revamped its 805 Immigrant Rapid Response Hotline as soon as the election results came out last November, and in the first few weeks of Trump’s presidency, the hotline took hundreds of calls and messages about suspected ICE activity.

These included targeted operations, in which agents were looking for a specific individual, and “collateral arrests,” where agents would detain other undocumented people that happened to be in the same location or vehicle as the intended target.

Hernandez said it’s been a challenge to verify ICE sightings, determine if they are federal immigration enforcement or other law enforcement activity, and dispel rumors or false reports that could spread unnecessary fear.

“We only promote and post information on our social media platforms that has been 100 percent verified,” Hernandez said.

Part of fighting the misinformation and disinformation, Hernandez said, is educating the public and asking people to “take a moment” to be sure about what they have witnessed before posting online. “People may be doing this with good intentions,”she said, “but oftentimes it can be confused with regular sheriff or police activity, and people aren’t able to tell the difference. They just see someone in uniform with questionable gear, and it adds to the fuel.”

In the past few days, 805 UndocuFund reported three arrests in Santa Barbara County, including one in Santa Maria and two more in Santa Barbara’s Westside on Sunday, February 23.

The Santa Barbara arrests highlighted the methods that are being used in immigration enforcement. In one arrest, armed FBI agents used a battering ram to enter a family apartment to arrest an undocumented individual following a misdemeanor driving violation. According to advocates working with the family, agents did not provide a signed judicial warrant until after the man was taken.

The other arrest, Hernandez said, happened when ICE agents picked up a man who was on the way to his child’s soccer game. In that case, he was detained before he was able to get to his car.

She said these arrests, in which the individuals were wanted for minor criminal offenses or no criminal violation at all, and the detention of U.S. citizens, Native Americans, and military veterans, show exactly what Latino communities are facing on the Central Coast as a result of a narrative depicting all undocumented people as criminals.

Julissa Peña, executive director of the Immigrant Legal Defense Center — which is representing more than 400 people currently facing deportation proceedings in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo counties — said that the public has been “inundated with a narrative of people being arrested who are serious criminals.”

“You need to understand that these people, even if they committed a crime, have already complied with their sentence and have complied with their probation program — just like any other U.S. citizen here — but they’re being targeted because they’re undocumented and punished again by separating them from their families,” Peña said. “Sometimes these narratives just take away from the human side of these families. These are parents; these are sons.”

Julissa Peña of the Immigrant Legal Defense Center says it’s important to dispel narratives that paint undocumented people as criminals. “These narratives just take away from the human side of these families. These are parents, these are sons,” Peña said. | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

Peña is working with 10 individuals being held in immigration detention centers, all of whom have been in the area for decades. One man has lived in the county since he was eight months old, while another has six children who are U.S. citizens. Another, the sole provider for his three children, has been here since he was 10 years old.

“So don’t forget that when you’re hearing all this information about these folks being criminals. They’re humans,” Peña said.

She said that, while the Trump administration is “hell-bent” on escalating the number of deportations, the problem of undocumented people facing deportation without legal representation is something that has been going on for years. She cited data from federal records that show that, of the nearly 3,000 people facing deportation proceedings in Santa Barbara County in 2024, more than 46 percent were without counsel.

According to public records from 2024, at least 65 percent of ICE arrests were for individuals who had no criminal conviction at all. Over the past five years, more than 43 percent of ICE arrests were for minor traffic violations.

“These numbers obliterate the narrative that ICE is targeting dangerous criminals,” Peña said. “Instead, the data reveals a system disproportionately punishing immigrants simply for being an immigrant, and this data aligns with what [we] are seeing in the front lines here in our region.”

Deputy Public Defender Onyx Starrett said this has led to undocumented people who are facing minor violations to miss court dates due to being detained by ICE, which doesn’t arrange transport to local courts. This adds to the lack of trust in local law enforcement and courts, Starrett said.

Santa Barbara County Undersheriff Craig Bonner was clear in his comments about the intersection of immigration enforcement and local law enforcement. He said that the Sheriff’s Office recognizes the “significant fear of deportation and family separation” that some community members are feeling, and that it was important the public felt safe to call 9-1-1 regardless of their immigration status.

“We cannot and will not fail to provide core public safety services to any member of our community, and that includes undocumented immigrants who live and work within our communities,” Bonner said. “Our primary focus is and will continue to be the protection and service to our entire community, and not on enforcing federal immigration laws.”

Local deputies don’t ask about immigration status, Bonner said, and the Sheriff’s Office does not assist with any type of immigration enforcement in any capacity.

Undersheriff Craig Bonner reinforced the Sheriff’s Office position, saying local law enforcement’s primary focus is “the protection and service to our entire community, and not on enforcing federal immigration laws.” | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

The only exception, as required by state law, is when the Sheriff’s Office shares information about individuals currently housed in county jail. But these referrals, which only apply to those with serious or violent offenses, make up less than one percent of releases. In 2023, ICE requested information for 141 individuals out of a total of nearly 10,000 people released from Santa Barbara jails. Of those, the Sheriff’s Office shared the info for 33 whose charges met the criteria, and ICE picked up a total of five people for the entire year.

Bonner also explained that federal immigration agencies notify the Sheriff’s Office when they are operating in Santa Barbara, though these notifications are intended to make sure local jurisdictions stay out of the area. “We do not go help them,” Bonner said.

As the forum came to a close, Hernandez made one more plea to support the organizations on the front lines, many of which are underfunded and rely on volunteer donations. This could be by helping donate to the Immigrant Legal Defense Center and 805 UndocuFund, or by simply working within your personal network to dispel the narratives around immigration.

“It doesn’t matter where you stand on the political spectrum,” Hernandez said. “Many different sectors are being impacted. If employees are not showing up to work, if students are not showing up to your schools, that is reflected in less state funding. If your neighbor who you see every day when you go to the grocery store isn’t going out shopping, it’s gonna impact our wallets. It’s impacting everyone.”

“We will be okay,” she continued. “We need to focus on the actions and the positive things we can do for our children, for our community, and we will be able to come out of this situation. Again, we’ve done it time and time again. But we do need all of you to join us and be part of our work and this movement.”