Mayor Randy Rowse’s letter presents an image of inevitability and powerlessness: Santa Barbara can neither aid nor interfere with ICE; therefore, the city’s hands are clean. That framing is deeply misleading. While immigration enforcement is a federal function, cities are not neutral bystanders with no meaningful choices.
Courts have been clear: Declining to cooperate is not lawlessness; it is a lawful exercise of local authority. But non-interference is not neutrality. When ICE conducts operations that instill fear in immigrant communities, silence from city leadership is not benign—it functions as tacit approval.
Immigrant communities need more than assurances of good intentions; they need enforceable policies. Residents are asking their leaders to defend them—through sanctuary ordinances, clear non-cooperation rules, public reporting of ICE activity, legal defense funds, and unequivocal statements that Santa Barbara will not be complicit in actions that separate families or chill access to schools, healthcare, and civic life.
Cities across California have demonstrated that local governments can meaningfully reduce harm from aggressive immigration enforcement while remaining within the law. Santa Barbara can do the same—if it chooses to.
