Federal immigration enforcement operations continue to hit communities across the Central Coast — with raids on farms in Santa Maria over the weekend and more early morning arrests reported in Santa Barbara County on Tuesday, November 18. As of this week, the 805 Immigrant Coalition’s Rapid Response Network recorded at least 1,009 immigration-related arrests in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo counties since January, with more than 310 immigrants arrested in Santa Barbara County.
Just after 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning, legal observers with the Rapid Response Network reported a convoy of six unmarked ICE vehicles patrolling the Eastside Santa Barbara neighborhood. These vehicles were seen leaving the ICE facility in Camarillo earlier that morning, then arriving later in Santa Barbara, where masked agents were seen jumping out and arresting at least one community member near Mason Street. The same vehicles were spotted returning to the ICE office in Camarillo around 9:30 a.m.
Volunteers with 805 Immigrant Coalition’s Rapid Response Network keep records of “known ICE vehicles.” These vehicles are often unmarked, but have been documented in previous federal immigration enforcement in the region, or are recorded leaving and returning to the ICE facility with detainees. 805 UndocuFund then works to contact the families of those arrested to connect them with legal and financial resources.
Later Tuesday morning, the county Board of Supervisors heard from numerous immigration rights advocates describing in detail the impact recent ICE raids have had on the county’s immigrant community and asking the supervisors to raise their voice in outrage over what’s happening.
Cesar Vasquez, a 17-year-old activist and Rapid Response Hotline volunteer who has been tracking ICE activity, notified the supervisors that ICE agents had just picked up four more county residents Tuesday morning. That brought the total number of people taken in the month of November alone, he said, to 63. These numbers represent a minimum number of arrests, and advocates say there are likely more detainees that are deported without any witnesses. ICE has not released an official number of arrests by region.
Many of those seized, detained, and deported, the supervisors were told, had committed no crimes other than perhaps speaking Spanish and having brown skin. Many spoke of recent raids that took place in Santa Maria this last Thursday and Sunday, where more than 15 were taken and protesters clashed with federal agents. Some, including Vasquez, were pushed or hit with flash-bangs. “Be outraged,” one speaker urged the supervisors; speak out against the use of excessive force.
“Our farmworkers’ only crime is to work hard every day regardless of the weather conditions,” said MICOP (Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project) organizer Armando Santiago.
As enforcement operations increase in frequency, immigrant rights groups have been hosting donation drives and community defense training sessions, and more social media pages have popped up dedicated to watching the neighborhoods of Goleta (@ice_out_of_Goleta), Santa Barbara (@sbresiste), and Carpinteria (@carp_sinfronteras).
