Help us.
Hundreds of people packed the Franklin Community Center Tuesday night to call on the city of Santa Barbara to defend them against raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
They don’t feel safe and want the Santa Barbara Police Department to stop and ticket or arrest ICE agents who break the law, residents said.
“If I was driving around without a license plate I would get pulled over,” said Eastside resident Brian Maertz. “Why don’t they get pulled over? If I had too much tint on my windshield I would get pulled over. Just pull them over and show everyone whose side you are on.”
Tuesday night’s crowd packed the community center and spilled out to the parking lot where hundreds more watched on video outside. The town hall-style City Council meeting was the latest of a series of meetings local groups are hosting in the aftermath of two workplace raids at Glass House Farms, which primarily grow cannabis, in Carpinteria and Camarillo.
Federal ICE agents arrested 361 people at both farms, and Department of Homeland Security officials said four of those people had felony convictions.
Santa Barbara residents at the meeting said most of the people were working hard to support their families when they were detained and deported and children were left behind to fend for themselves. The ICE raids are ripping apart families and hard-working individuals for no reason other than a government vendetta against Latinos and people of color, some speakers said.
Santa Barbara City Councilwoman Wendy Santamaria said that on Tuesday morning, a man was detained by federal agents a block away from where she lives. She said two entire families were taken into custody when they were dropping their children off for summer camp at Adelante Charter School.
“I am appalled and full of anger that this is happening in our community,” Santamaria said.
Police Chief Kelly Gordon said the city does not cooperate with ICE agents and explained that local officers do not ask questions about citizenship when dealing with the community and responding to 9-1-1 calls.
“My first priority in this community is to provide public safety for everyone, regardless of immigration status,” Gordon said.
She said the police department does not want to know a person’s citizenship status because “that’s not what matters.”
“We don’t ask about immigration status during calls, stops, investigations, community events,” Gordon said. “We don’t ask that.”
Gordon said she wants everyone regardless of citizenship status to feel safe to report a crime. If ICE agents show up, she said the police department will respond if someone calls 9-1-1. Gordon said that ICE agents do not notify the police department before a raid and that they don’t know when such events are happening.
Some in the crowd shouted during Gordon’s talk that the police department would know about the recent ICE raids if they followed social media. News of last Thursday’s ICE raids in Carpinteria and Camarillo spread on social media, which alerted the media and elected officials including Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara.
Primitiva Hernandez, executive director of the 805 Undocufund, has led the efforts to protect residents and spread information to the community about ICE raids. Her organization is seeking funding from the city and stronger protections of community members.
She, along with Mayor Randy Rowse, City Administrator Kelly McAdoo and Gordon, sat at the head of the table at the Franklin Community Center during the special meeting.
Hernandez said her organization called on the city and county more than a month ago to protect residents. She warned of pending ICE raids in the community. She said nothing was done.
“We don’t need to wait another 30 days, we don’t need to have more deaths, we don’t need to have more pain, we don’t need to have more broken families,” Hernandez said. “There are opportunities to show this community that not only are you listening, but that you care.”
Hernandez said the 805Undocufund has a rapid response network to help detainees and families, and are working with several attorneys, but the conditions in detention centers do not allow them quick access to representation.
“What we are hearing from community members who are choosing to sign their deportation, not by choice, because they are being tortured physically and mentally, what we are hearing is that they didn’t have any other choice,” Hernandez said. “They go days without eating.”
She said pregnant women are not receiving neo-natal care.
“We know from the Carpinteria raid that there are teens who are now taking care of their siblings,” she said.
Toward the end of the meeting council members spoke to the crowd to express their views on the deportation efforts.
Councilmember Meagan Harmon said she was not going to speak as a politician, but from the heart.
“As a person of faith, my God tells me that living a moral life is to care for the stranger,” Harmon said. “To clothe those who are cold. To feed those who are hungry.”
She said as a mother she feels the heartbreak and terror over the families that have been separated.
“I want us to consider an emergency declaration,” Harmon said. “I want us to consider funding for 805 Undocufund.”
The city staff agreed to meet with 805 Undocufund staff over the next few days and possibly hold a council meeting next week to take action.
