Officials Speak Out After ICE Surge Hits Santa Maria

Local leaders are speaking out after federal immigration enforcement was seen across northern Santa Barbara County on October 5, when masked ICE officers arrested at least 17 people in Santa Maria and Guadalupe, including the parent of an Allan Hancock College student in a campus parking lot Monday morning.

Shortly before 10 a.m., 805 UndocuFund’s Rapid Response Network reported the incident at Allan Hancock College, warning community members in a text message that ICE officers “took someone” from the campus. By midday, reports of ICE activity all across the city began to come into the 24/7 hotline, with more than a dozen arrests confirmed by legal observers in the area.

Santa Maria City Councilmember Gloria Soto immediately issued a statement regarding the arrest at Allan Hancock College. Soto confirmed that ICE officers detained the parent of a student in Parking Lot 2, and left the scene before college officials could respond. Allan Hancock officials were not notified prior to the enforcement activity, and did not assist in any way, Soto said.

Allan Hancock College Superintendent-President Kevin Walthers said the college “strongly condemns immigration enforcement actions that create fear and uncertainty for our students and their families.”

“Our campuses should be places where every student can learn, grow, and pursue their goals without fear,” Walthers said.

Soto called a press conference for later that afternoon and sent an email to ICE officials requesting information about its operations in Santa Maria. (ICE officials did not respond to requests for comment, and government representatives have previously said the agency does not comment on recent enforcement actions.)

Soto called on her colleagues on the city council to “stop standing on the sidelines and take action.”

“We need ICE out of the 805,” Soto said.

Before the press conference began at the Allan Hancock campus library, more reports of unmarked ICE vehicles continued popping up across Santa Maria and Guadalupe. On its social media accounts, 805 UndocuFund posted updates reporting arrests outside a local health center and at workplaces. 

In one incident caught on video, a masked agent is seen running his unmarked black SUV into a parked car in a quiet Santa Maria neighborhood, during one of the more than a dozen different enforcement actions across town.

Representatives for 805 UndocuFund posted a statement on social media, saying that the city of Santa Maria was the “#1 targeted city in Santa Barbara county.” By the end of the day, the rapid response hotline confirmed at least 16 arrests in Santa Maria, and one in Guadalupe. Similar community defense groups reported federal immigration enforcement across Southern California on Monday, with more than 45 arrests across the region, including four in Ventura County and more than 20 arrests in the Greater Los Angeles Area.

Arrests occurred from 6:30 a.m until about 3 p.m. across Santa Maria, 805 UndocuFund confirmed: in residential neighborhoods, near the North County Branch of the jail, on Main Street, outside apartment buildings, and near popular Mexican grocery store El Milagro Market.

The ICE activity in Santa Maria reflects a step back into the more aggressive federal immigration enforcement seen in 2025, when teams of masked ICE officers were spotted making sweeps of workplaces and neighborhoods with high populations of Latino residents. Since then, the agency had shifted to a less publicly visible form of enforcement, focusing arrests at jails and immigration check-ins.

The latest wave of ICE activity, and the arrest on a local college campus, has brought a renewed level of attention from the area’s most prominent politicians. Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón said she was “deeply disturbed” to learn about the ICE activity at the Allan Hancock campus. 

“Our college campuses are meant to make our students feel safe, supported, and valued,” Limón said. “Unfortunately, today a family has been torn apart and a student has been ripped away from their parent. These raids instill fear in our students, cause chaos, and result in broken trust and effectiveness between the community and those charged to keep us safe.”

Congressmember Salud Carbajal issued a similar statement, saying he was “appalled” by the ICE activity at a local community college.

“College campuses and schools must remain safe places where students, faculty, and families can be free from fear and intimidation,” Carbajal said. “I will be working to uncover exactly what transpired during this operation and will demand full accountability to keep ICE’s brutal and disruptive tactics off our campuses. I stand with the Allan Hancock College community and everyone who has been impacted by ICE’s terrorizing raids.”

After 17 arrests in the county on October 5, 805 UndocuFund’s Rapid Response Network  did not report any arrests in Santa Barbara County as of 10 a.m. on October 6.