What was supposed to be a Carpinteria Sin Fronteras and 805UndocuFund volunteer training session for an estimated 40 people turned out to have 200 people pack the Carpinteria Children’s Project in January.

The immigrant activist group said it was not a coincidence. 

Earlier that month, federal agents in Minnesota shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, prompting protests across the country denouncing the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. 

Locally, just a couple of days before the January training event, masked federal agents pepper-sprayed a real estate agent in the Eastside neighborhood who was videotaping ICE agents on her phone.

Before documenting the federal agent’s actions, she had been voluntarily canvassing her neighborhood with informational immigration resources. 

“That is the first time that has ever happened in Carpinteria, and I do think that the pepper-spraying of Beth had a big big reason for that,” said Cesar Vasquez, 805UndocuFund rapid response organizer.

Other local immigrant activist groups across Santa Barbara County began seeing a surge of community members interested in joining volunteer bases with SB Resiste, Carpinteria Sin Fronteras, ICE Out of Goleta and Unión del Barrio following local and national ICE activity. 

The January meeting doubled Carpinteria Sin Fronteras’ volunteer base to 60 members. 

Before that, the group had seen a gradual increase, according to team leads Aris Romero and Penelope Lewis.

“When something massive happens like a murder or violence, that ignites something in people to make them want to come out and do something like volunteering,” Lewis said.

Romero and Lewis said the new members allow work such as patrolling, outreach and mutual aid to be better distributed among community members.  

While the volunteer base grew, the two say there is still a need for help in the fundraising area. 

“Alerting the community when ICE is present is super important, but there’s a big part of it that is aftercare, like what happens to the families when their loved ones are taken,” Romero said. 

She said any funds the organization receives go toward local families who had a member detained by ICE.

“Our team is 100% self-sustained — our gas and vehicle wear and tear, we pay for it,” Romero said. 

805UndocuFund also had a volunteer boom following the deaths of Good and Pretti, according to Vasquez. He estimated that he personally trained up to 600 interested community members.

“Some people would assume that it would be the opposite, that people would be too afraid to sign up, but I think people are starting to realize that they need to,” he said.

The immigrant activist groups hold public meetings to train interested community members to become volunteers. That can include learning how to patrol the city, helping local families and canvassing neighborhoods with immigrant resources.

“I want there to be more eyes on the Central Coast,” Vasquez said. “What happened in Minnesota is not an isolated event, and people are just starting to realize that.”

He pointed to the most recent ICE activity in downtown Santa Barbara when federal agents pepper-sprayed a criminal defense attorney who was confronting them about the detainment of a 27-year-old man for allegedly vandalizing a federal vehicle.

“As things happen in the community, like the community member that got pepper-sprayed or the lawyer that got tackled in downtown Santa Barbara, people are realizing that their skin color or profession will not protect them,” he said. 

He said now there are dozens of volunteers patrolling the county in the mornings. 

“Before, we were struggling to find two people every single morning, and now we are able to find like 15 people out there every morning,” Vasquez said.

Other events such as local protests have brought in more volunteers for ICE out of Goleta and Unión del Barrio, according to a joint statement from the Goleta-based immigrant activist groups.

The groups typically post their volunteer training dates on social media. 

“We want to get to a point where it’s not even volunteers but just normal community activities where we can advocate for each other, and that’s normal and not such a taboo thing,” Vasquez said.