A chaotic arrest scene unfolded Friday morning in downtown Santa Barbara as two federal agents violently arrested 27-year-old resident Jack Randmaa and knocked down and pepper sprayed 80-year-old attorney Doug Hayes.
According to Randmaa’s father, Matt, Jack is a volunteer ICE observer and had been alerted to agents’ presence on Carrillo Street, near the offices of the Santa Barbara County Probation Department.
Jack had apparently approached too close to an ICE vehicle, Matt said, when agents “jumped” him. They also accused Jack of slashing one of the car’s tires. “Sounds like false charges,” Matt said. “He was nowhere near the tire slashed. He had no weapon on him.”
As Jack was being detained by two agents, bystander video shows, Hayes approached, demanding the agents remove their masks and calling them cowards. One of the agents then tripped Hayes, and he fell to the ground. As Hayes sat up, the other agent pepper-sprayed him in the face, the video shows.
At County Probation, an employee who asked not to be identified, said three or four ICE vehicles had pulled up to the offices at approximately 11 a.m. The employee said a handful of protesters were also present and one of them had allegedly attempted to pry a tire off one of the vehicles.
According to a member of SBResiste, rapid responders in Ventura County had begun following the ICE vehicles as they traveled through Ventura and Carpinteria since about 7 a.m. The vehicles were then spotted at around 8:30 a.m. on Coast Village Road, and shortly after on Mission Street.
ICE agents and protesters outside the Santa Barbara County Probation building at Anacapa and Carrillo streets on Friday morning, February 20, 2026. | Credit: Angus Duncan 
Attorney Doug Hayes, 80, after being pepper-sprayed by an ICE agent on February 20 | Credit: William Mackler 
Attorney Doug Hayes, 80, after being pepper-sprayed by an ICE agent on February 20 | Credit: William Mackler 
The two ICE agents were escorted by Santa Barbara Police to the nearby police station after the arrest on Friday. | Credit: George Yatchisin
Matt Randmaa said he and his wife plan to follow their son wherever ICE takes him, either to a detention facility in Los Angeles or another in Camarillo. All three of them are American citizens, Matt said.
Santa Barbara police officers were present during the incident and helped escort ICE agents to their nearby station after the arrest. The department said a public statement is forthcoming.
In comments to observers gathered outside the Santa Barbara Police Department, where ICE agents had retreated after the Carrillo Street incident, Commander Chris Payne stated “someone vandalized” an ICE vehicle. The observers disputed that claim. Payne also said a federal statute allowed the ICE agents to arrest Randmaa, rather than city police.
Representatives with 805 UndocuFund said spotters had observed three ICE vehicles ― a white Dodge Charger, a White Dodge Caravan, and a Silver Ford Expedition ― “playing cat-and-mouse” with Rapid Response volunteers throughout the morning as they seemingly waited to pick somebody up at the county jail.
[Update: Fri., Feb. 20, 2026, 2:05pm]
The Santa Barbara Police Department issued a statement that said “the ICE agents had one of their vehicle tires slashed while parked on Carrillo Street,” calling it a “federal crime for destruction of government property.”
“The ICE agents made a decision to drive the individual they had arrested and their disabled vehicle to the Santa Barbara Police Department,” the statement continued. “The Santa Barbara Police Department was not notified that ICE was coming to the police department before they arrived.”
Matt Randmaa, the father of arrestee Jack Randmaa, “was able to video the damage to the ICE vehicle and obtain the location where his son was being transported to by the ICE agents,” the police said. “The disabled ICE vehicle was temporarily moved into the Santa Barbara Police Department parking lot to allow a tow truck to safely respond and to tow the vehicle.”
