Federal immigration agents swarmed the Central Coast last week, reportedly taking 114 people into custody across San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

The agents targeted workplaces, neighborhoods and busy streets — detaining people on their way to work, at the grocery store, and even the ICE field offices to update their immigration paperwork.

From Oct. 5 to Sunday, agents took five people into custody from San Luis Obispo County, 75 from Santa Barbara County and 34 from Ventura County, according to data collected by 805 UndocuFund, a local nonprofit organization that supports undocumented immigrants and their families.

In San Luis Obispo County, all five arrests happened in San Luis Obispo. In Santa Barbara County, 55 people were detained in Santa Maria, 16 in Lompoc, three in Santa Barbara and one in Guadalupe, according to 805 UndocuFund.

The Santa Maria incidents include agents detaining the parent of an Allan Hancock College student at a campus parking lot.

In Ventura County, 13 people were detained in Oxnard, eight in Ventura, seven in Simi Valley, one in Thousand Oaks, one in Newbury Park, three in Santa Paula and one in Port Hueneme.

Since Jan. 1, 2025, 2,986 people have been taken into custody in that same tri-county area on the Central Coast.

805 UndocuFund collected the data from rapid responders who witnessed the arrests and community members who reported the arrests of their friends and family members. The group then checked the numbers to ensure there weren’t duplicates of the same incident in the dataset.

Normally, ICE agents target local jails, detaining people as they are released from county custody. But last week, agents plucked people off the street — and they’ve shown no signs of stopping.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security hasn’t told the public why it escalated immigration enforcement activity in California during the past week. The agency also did not respond to The Tribune’s request for comment.

Gov. Gavin Newsom condemned the recent ICE operation.

“Donald Trump is using fear and panic as a weapon — putting families at risk, undermining our economy and terrorizing communities,” Newsom said in a statement.

“No president is above the Constitution. No one in this country is without rights. California will stand up for our communities and hold federal agents accountable.”

San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg criticized ICE’s lack of transparency regarding its operations in a statement posted on Facebook, calling it “deeply concerning.” She said ICE recently detained the parent of a local middle school student.

“When enforcement actions affect local families, the absence of clear information can have far-reaching consequences, especially for children who deserve to feel safe and secure in their communities,” Ortiz-Legg said in a statement.

ICE Agents Tackle Man at Guadalupe Market

A video and photos circulating on Facebook showed a group of ICE agents tackling a man to the ground before taking him into custody in Guadalupe on Sunday morning. The arrest happened in front of La Favorita Market at 771 Guadalupe St., the video showed.

An anonymous 65-year-old Guadalupe resident said she often visits that market on Sunday mornings with her sister. It’s not the first time ICE agents have darkened her doorstep this year, she said.

The Tribune excluded her name from the article to protect her from retaliation. About seven months ago, ICE agents showed up at her church in Guadalupe and demanded to see people’s identification before they entered the building.

“That was the last day I went to church,” she said.

She is an American citizen, but she could no longer associate with congregants who thought the presence of ICE agents at church was acceptable, she said.

“I was baptized there. My mother was married in that church. My father, my grandparents were married in that church. My husband and I were married in that church. All of my children were baptized in that church, and now I can’t go back to it,” she said.

“The hypocrisy — it’s just too much for me.”

Since President Donald Trump was re-elected, she’s noticed more ICE activity in Guadalupe — and their tactics are more aggressive. But she’s not surprised, she said. “This is just the same old America we’ve always lived in,” she said.

Some of her neighbors don’t leave their houses because they are afraid to be stopped by ICE. Others are making family plans, in case one or both of the parents are deported.

She agreed to watch over her neighbor’s three daughters if their mother is deported. The girls are 7, 10 and 11 years old.

If the girls come home from school and their mother isn’t home by 6 p.m., they’ve been instructed to go to this woman’s house, where they’ll be taken care of until their aunt can arrive from Chicago to take custody of them.

“She always has a bag for them packed,” she said. “She rotates their clothing inside that little suitcase. That’s how they live.”

She urged Tribune readers to remember that undocumented immigrants are people, just like citizens, and their lives have equal value. “They could be your family,” she said. “We don’t know who our children will grow up and marry.”

Guadalupe councilmember and mayoral candidate Christina Hernandez spoke out against the recent ICE activity.

“No family should live in fear or be afraid to send their children to school,” she said in a statement. “Everyone deserves dignity and respect.

“Our community has constitutional rights, and it’s important that residents know and assert those rights. When our families feel safe, our entire community is stronger.”

This article was originally published in the San Luis Obispo Tribune.