The Goleta City Council voted Monday to give $100,000 to local nonprofit organizations to help families affected by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts.

City Manager Robert Nisbet also will work with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office to enact a policy to require deputies to respond to reports of immigration enforcement activity and record the events with body cameras. 

Councilwoman Luz Reyes-Martín said she’s been deeply troubled by videos of farmworkers running from federal agents and of mothers being separated from their children. 

“When I see those images, it’s a mirror,” Reyes-Martín said. “They look like me. The children that are left behind look like my children. It’s inescapable for me not to feel deep empathy and outrage for what they’re going through and understand the real fear that is pervasive in Latino communities and families right now.”

Dozens of people packed Monday’s special meeting of the City Council and crowded the parking lot to speak. They demanded more support from law enforcement and for the city to allocate funds to support immigrant communities. 

Goleta was the latest city to hold a special meeting to address immigration enforcement after a federal operation in Carpinteria on July 10 led to 10 immigrants arrested and flash and smoke grenades used on protesters. The same day, federal agents raided a farm in Camarillo.

During Monday’s meeting, Santa Barbara County District Attorney John Savrnoch, Julissa Peña, executive director of the Immigrant Legal Defense Center, John Schettler, assistant superintendent of pupil services for the Goleta Union School District and Goleta Police Chief Lt. Frank Vasquez were invited to speak and share information about how their agencies handle immigration enforcement.

Vasquez repeated the same message that the Sheriff’s Office has been sharing for the past several weeks — specifically, that deputies can’t work with federal agents on immigration operations nor intervene in operations.

However, he shared that the Sheriff’s Office generally gets notices from immigration enforcement when they’re conducting operations. Federal agents don’t provide exact details, but they do usually share the general area they will be in, Vasquez said. 

Reyes-Martin said many women in the city are concerned about being picked up by people impersonating ICE officers.

Vasquez said people can call the Sheriff’s Office if there is any doubt about the legitimacy of an agent, but he also advised that no one should be going out late at night alone and that women should “have a plan” if they’re afraid of being kidnapped or assaulted.

Those comments earned Vasquez a lot of heat from the public, with one public commenter, Marina Chavez, saying they wouldn’t accept Goleta turning into a sundown town where people are afraid to leave their house.

During public comment, Goleta residents called for law enforcement to support immigrant families and pull over vehicles without license plates, and for the city to put resources toward verifying ICE presence in the city and alerting community members.

McKinley McPherson, a UC Santa Barbara student, said students are deeply afraid and want more than the bare minimum from local officials. 

“While you all work six minutes from our university, I hope you all know that our students are deeply afraid,” McPherson said. “While the city, the nation and the state of California have constantly worked to destroy Black, Brown and Indigenous communities, while we’re disappointed in your work, we are not surprised. While you fill your lobbies with red cards and update your website with resources to best suit our communities, it is the bare minimum, and it is not good enough.”

Yolanda Perez, a volunteer for the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County, said attendance at the monthly food distributions has been drastically declining for months. Earlier this year, 30 to 40 people would walk to the distribution at 5425 Hollister Ave., but in May, Yolanda said they had only three people, and they canceled the July event.

“These are mothers, these are grandmothers. This is Saturday morning, and these women are afraid to walk down Hollister Avenue to get food for their family,” Perez said. 

Charlie Dorado said people are tired of the racial profiling from ICE agents and want to see more action from the Sheriff’s Office. 

“If the law enforcement does not step up, then the community will step up and take it into their own hands,” Dorado said. “We don’t want that, but there’s only so much people can take till you break, and I think we’re almost right there.”

Following public comment, Reyes-Martín called on residents to support and have empathy for those affected by recent immigration activity. 

“I urge you to have empathy for your neighbors,” Reyes-Martín said. “I ask that you see the humanity and dignity of the people in our community. They are your neighbors. They are the kids and families in your kid’s school. You celebrate alongside them at community events. They sit next to you in church on Sunday. Please see them and support them.”

The council approved reallocating $100,000 from $250,000 budgeted for child care initiatives to go toward local nonprofit organizations helping affected families through legal and mental health resources. 

The city’s Human Services Standing Committee, which consists of Reyes-Martin, Councilman Stuart Kasdin, Neighborhood Services Director JoAnne Plummer, senior management analyst Cassidy Le Air and management assistant Melissa Cure, will be tasked with choosing organizations to receive the funds.

Additionally, Councilman James Kyriaco called on Sheriff Bill Brown to use his position as president of Major County Sheriffs of America to speak out about the tactics used by immigration agents.

The city also will explore joining the American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit over the immigration raids and will send an information request to the federal government for ICE records on raids and enforcement actions conducted within the city. 

Additionally, the city will look into using the Goleta Valley Community Center to store food and supplies to support local organizations delivering food to families in need. 

Shortly before Monday’s meeting, about 30 community members held a rally near City Hall at the intersection of Los Carneros Road and Karl Storz Drive. They held “ICE Out of 805” signs, Californian and Mexican flags, and other signs supporting immigrant communities as vehicles drove past.