Immigration activists and protesters gathered during Tuesday’s Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting to express their dissatisfaction with the continued relationship between the county and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The supervisors heard the Sheriff’s Office annual report on its partnership with ICE.

Under state guidelines, the Sheriff’s Office is not required to alert ICE when it arrests an undocumented migrant. However, it may alert the agency if a suspect is accused of certain crimes.

Sheriff Bill Brown shared the statistics recorded by his office in 2023 for the TRUTH Act (Transparent Review of Unjust Transfers and Holds). The presentation showed that the number of alerts to ICE grew last year compared with the previous year.

Brown explained that his department received 141 requests for access to incarcerated people from ICE in 2023. It received 101 requests in 2022.

Of those requests, 108 did not meet requirements and no response was provided to ICE, according to the county.

Five individuals were “re-arrested” by ICE after being released from Sheriff’s Office custody in 2023, an increase of three compared with 2022.

Brown stated that re-arrests occur when the individual finishes serving their sentence in Santa Barbara County. ICE then takes the suspect into custody, which may lead to deportation.

During public comment, immigration activists shared stories highlighting the impact that deportation has on people who are arrested as well as the immigrant community.

Arthur Stevens is an Episcopal priest at Saint Michael’s University Church in Isla Vista. He attended the hearing to share the story of his adopted son, who was brought to the United States as a child.

Stevens said his son was arrested on a DUI charge in 2017 and was sentenced to community service. Part of his son’s service was to help clean up local beaches under the supervision of the Sheriff’s Office.

He said his son was later arrested by sheriff’s deputies when he tried to get his paperwork approved to complete his community hours.

Even though Stevens and his wife were able to hire an attorney to get their son out of detention, he later learned that the Social Security number he gained from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was suspended. The lack of identification meant he was unable to work.

“I think that what they did was a double-cross of our son who had been entrusted to them to do his community service,” Stevens said. “I think it was also a double-cross of the court, which had entrusted him to the Sheriff’s Department for community service.”

Prinitiva Hernandez attended the meeting to represent multiple activist groups.

Hernandez said the county’s cooperation with ICE has an effect on the immigrant community and leads to a sense of fear.

The other issue is what she called double punishment. Even though an immigrant can serve a sentence for a crime, they still risk deportation at the end of it.

Hernandez said that prevents them from rehabilitating and robs them of becoming a productive member of society.

“It’s adding to the fear. The sheriff may (think) that he’s protecting us from those people. That is not how we see it,” Hernandez said.

After the presentation, supervisors asked questions and dug into the details of the Sheriff’s Office’s cooperation with ICE to learn more about how it decides to answer a request from the federal agency.

Brown said his office only answers requests when the crime committed was especially violent or heinous and the suspect has already been convicted.

Brown also said that he has written to the state attorney general to ask for an official list that would outline what crimes qualify for alerting ICE.

Supervisor Laura Capps expressed concern that immigrants were being scapegoated.

“We have such a community of (…) hardworking people who I know create the backbone of our community, of our economy, who are living in fear right now,” Capps said.

“The more we communicate, the more transparency, the more we work together with our partners, the better we do by us in a very scary time in our history,” she said. “And I believe that we’ll be judged by how we respond.”

Capps requested to have the Sheriff’s Office return to the board if there are major changes to the relationship with ICE or other immigration issues.

Steve Lavagnino, the supervisor for the Fifth District, acknowledged comments from Capps and Supervisor Joan Hartmann that immigrants may be scapegoated, but said he did not want to defend people who commit violent crimes.

“I think this hearing does always seem to forget that there are a lot of victims out there,” Lavagnino said. “And as the sheriff mentioned, most of those victims are also undocumented individuals, and standing up for people who commit crimes doesn’t hold water in my book.” .

At the end of the discussion, the board voted 5-0 to accept the report and Capps’ amendment to request a board report if there are any major updates.