A federal agent pepper-sprayed a local immigrant advocacy group volunteer in the lobby of the Santa Barbara County Main Jail Tuesday morning.
Agents also reportedly detained one person who was released from jail custody.
“One of our members was pepper-sprayed directly in the face at close range for no reason,” said Anthony Rodriguez, an 805UndocuFund rapid responder.
The incident occurred inside the Inmate Reception Center (IRC) lobby at the Main Jail at 4436 Calle Real. It has a “sally port” to access the inside of the jail.
The IRC lobby is open to the public and is not typically staffed by Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office personnel, according to spokesperson Raquel Zick.
At the time of the Tuesday incident, there were no Sheriff’s Office deputies or other Sheriff’s Office staff present, she added.
Representatives for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not respond to a Noozhawk request for comment as of Tuesday afternoon.
Advocacy groups including SB Resiste, Carpinteria Sin Fronteras, ICE out of Goleta, and 805UndocuFund began posting online about ICE agent operations at the South County jail at about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Federal immigration enforcement agents have been a semi-regular presence at county jail facilities over the past year. Agents have reportedly detained dozens of people as they are released from custody, advocacy groups have said.
In a video shared with Noozhawk, an immigrant advocacy group volunteer captured the moments leading up to a federal agent pepper-spraying a separate volunteer who was observing the agent’s activity in the IRC building lobby.
Six agents wearing “Police ICE” vests and buff-style masks covering most of their faces stand in the lobby alongside a group of at least four people. Three advocacy group volunteers are seen in the video and another is recording.
One volunteer, a man in a blue shirt, appears to be speaking with a masked federal agent. The video shows the agent physically pushing the man away from him.
Another federal agent, witnessing the interaction next to them, pushes the man in the blue shirt before a different agent walks across the lobby, raises a black canister and dispenses a yellow spray in the man’s face.
The spray also appears to hit another volunteer, a woman in a pink shirt. Both of them — plus another volunteer — run out the lobby’s open door.
Rodriguez confirmed the man in the blue shirt is a volunteer with SB Resiste who observes ICE activity. The man went to the emergency room for medical help after the agent pepper-sprayed him.
“What worries me the most is that the violence against us is increasing. We don’t have weapons. All we have is our phones and whistles,” he said.
“They are very reckless in the way they respond, the way that they treat people. They are going to end up killing somebody here too if they don’t stop,” he added.
Zick confirmed that county deputies talked to some people in front of the headquarters after the incident, who requested that deputies arrest the federal immigration agents.
Deputies informed the people “that’s not something they can do,” she said.
About an hour later, the Sheriff’s Office received a call from a local hospital requesting a report be taken related to this incident, she said.
Deputies completed a courtesy incident report, but the Sheriff’s Office is not investigating the incident since it involved federal agents, Zick added.
Ana Arce spoke Tuesday at the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting about the interaction. She said volunteers requested intervention from the Sheriff’s Office.
“All they were able to say was, ‘We don’t collaborate with ICE,’” she said.
She alleged that the Sheriff’s Office staff were not protecting the local community and instead using “it as an excuse that they are not in collaboration.”
Sheriff Bill Brown and other staff have repeatedly said that they do not coordinate with federal agents on immigration enforcement operations.
Rodriguez said federal immigration enforcement activity at the county jail has increased and is changing.
Some supervisors sounded the alarm over the number of immigration-related arrests on jail property during the annual TRUTH Act report meeting in June.
At the time, supervisors Laura Capps and Steve Lavagnino pushed for the Sheriff’s Office to record the number of ICE arrests occurring at the jail, which is county property.
During the June meeting, Brown said he would rather federal immigration agents arrest people at the jail “because it is going to be less disruptive, it’s going to be more safe if they do it at the jail location rather than they do it in the community.”
Federal agents have been recorded pepper-spraying observers and bystanders in the Santa Barbara area at least two times this year.
At least eight people have been pepper-sprayed by federal agents in the South Coast area recently, according to 805UndocuFund’s internal records, Rodriguez said.
