Santa Barbara County Students Stage Walkouts, Congressmember Calls for Investigation Amid ICE Surge

Community members and elected officials are speaking up in response to the recent surge of ICE activity on the Central Coast, following a wave of public incidents that included the detention of special needs student and U.S. citizen Erik Zepeda, a 20-year-old who was detained in an aggressive encounter with federal immigration enforcement while on his way to Santa Maria High School on October 21. 

Students walked out of their classrooms at Santa Maria and Lompoc high schools on Friday in a demonstration of solidarity with Zepeda, who according to witnesses at the scene that day, was tackled, restrained, and questioned before being left on the street with bruises and a wrist injury that later required surgery.

The student walkout was just one of the many public repudiations of the increased ICE activity during the month of October, following reports of more than 114 community members who were arrested by federal immigration enforcement on the Central Coast from October 5 through October 11, according to 805 UndocuFund’s Rapid Response Network. 

805 UndocuFund keeps track of daily ICE activity in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo counties, verifying reports through its 24/7 hotline and sending alerts through its messaging network. The group noted an uptick in ICE presence and arrests throughout the region in the past several weeks, consistent with reports of a 45-day surge in communities across the state. (The Department of Homeland Security has not publicly confirmed or denied the existence of the operation, reportedly known as “Operation Safe California.”)

From January 2025 through October 2026, the Rapid Response Network reported at least 2,983 arrests in the three counties, with more than 1,350 in Santa Barbara County. Of these arrests, most have occurred in the northern parts of the county, with 848 taken in Santa Maria and 316 in Lompoc. In South County, 143 people were taken in Santa Barbara, 28 in Carpinteria, and 10 in Goleta.

Santa Maria Councilmember Gloria Soto and District School Boardmember Ricardo Valencia have both spoken out publicly to call for an end to aggressive ICE enforcement. On October 29, Congressmember Salud Carbajal filed an official response with DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin calling for an investigation into the immigration enforcement on the Central Coast, specifically asking that the government provide details about the detention of Zepeda just a half mile away from the Santa Maria High School campus.

Carbajal’s letter describes recent reports from Rapid Response groups and community residents who have witnessed ICE on a nearly daily basis throughout the month of October. These include arrests at workplaces, farms, community churches, neighborhoods with high populations of Latino residents, in marketplace parking lots, and near school campuses, such as the arrest of a parent reported at Allan Hancock College on October 5.

“I have seen alarming reports of U.S. citizens being detained and injured and heard of families and farmworkers with no criminal record who have been caught up in aggressive interior enforcement actions,” Carbajal wrote. “I have serious concerns that a growing number of individuals are being targeted based on their race, ethnicity, or perceived immigration status. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) must be accountable to the public and to the communities they serve, including my constituents.”

Carbajal noted a “rising tide of rhetoric” inflaming division in the community, painting immigrants as criminals despite data from the Migration Policy Institute’s most recent analysis, which showed that only about 20 percent of the estimated 980,000 individuals deported in the first 18 months of the second Trump administration had criminal convictions. 

“These findings raise important questions as to whether the people being targeted match the administration’s stated focus on individuals who pose a public safety threat and have criminal convictions,” Carbajal said.

Rapid Response volunteers have been on the ground every day to track immigration enforcement activity, and multiple volunteers told the Independent they have noticed a shift from targeted enforcement to seemingly random pickups, with convoys of masked agents now going after community members based on skin color and appearance. In the case of Zepeda, an ICE spokesperson said he was apprehended because agents “believed he matched the description” of their target.

ICE denied that Zepeda sustained any broken bones, and the agency said they never called for an ambulance because the 20-year-old “never requested medical assistance.” School officials said Zepeda made his way over to the campus himself, where administration arranged for medical help.

Over the past weekend, ICE has also ramped up activity outside local jails. Every day of Halloween weekend, ICE officers were seen at the Santa Barbara County Main Jail, where each day, a convoy with anywhere from six to eight agents — most of them masked — stood in and around the jail lobby waiting to apprehend an individual being released from custody. 

While the agents rarely speak with the public, on Sunday morning, November 2, one of the ICE officers began reciting verses from the Bible toward Rapid Response volunteers who were standing outside the lobby: “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law,” the agent could be heard saying in one recording, ”you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

That same morning, the agents took one individual from the jail and reportedly drove him back to ICE’s regional office in Camarillo. The same group of immigration officers was seen back at the Santa Barbara jail again the next morning on Monday, November 2.

DHS has not responded to Carbajal’s request for an investigation, which calls for details into Central Coast operations, the number of U.S citizens who have been apprehended or detained, and the protocols for verifying identity or approaching individuals with disabilities. The agency typically does not comment on day-to-day operations.