The 805 UndocuFund Rapid Response Hotline, (805) 870-8855, received more than 700 calls and 900 text messages just in September.

The hotline, run through the Rapid Response Network, receives calls from people across Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties reporting Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) activity, asking for resources, or inquiring about their immigration case.

“It’s more than a hotline, it’s a help line,” said Primitiva Hernandez, executive director of 805UndocuFund.

Santa Barbara is split into north and south for Rapid Response organizers. 

After graduating from Santa Maria High School a year early, 17-year-old Cesar Vasquez now leads the North Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

He usually begins his days patrolling neighborhoods where there has been increased reports of ICE activity, sometimes even confronting agents. 

For the month of October, Vasquez estimates 266 people at a minimum were detained in Santa Barbara. Across the three counties, he reports at least 900 people. Law enforcement does not independently confirm ICE arrests or detainments.

Hernandez says the phone busily pings with texts and calls usually in the early morning.

“They are out really early in the morning between 5 a.m. to 1 to 3 p.m.,” she said. “We have very rarely been able to verify any activity past 5 p.m.”

When calling about a suspected immigration raid, trained phone operators are equipped with a list of questions to ask before sending a volunteer or staff member to investigate.

If responders witness a detainment, they are trained to go up to the detainee and ask for a family member’s contact information. They purposefully do not ask for the person’s name because that could make the situation worse, according to Stella Alvarez, executive assistant.

“That way they do not have to feel so scared because it is a very scary event,” Alvarez said.

Once the organization identifies next of kin, Beatriz Basurto Reyes, program coordinator, makes the call, often breaking the news to families that their loved one has been detained. The organization then begins plans to distribute the one-time $1,000 payment for emergency assistance to the detainee’s family.

Alvarez says Reyes is on the phone from day to night, estimating she talks to around 10 families a day.

“It’s just heartbreaking, and I can’t imagine how Beatriz feels when she has to make these calls back to back,” Alvarez said. 

Vasquez also recognizes how hard it could be for people in the organization to take care of their mental health. 

He says every time ICE detains someone he listens to “Hasta La Piel” by Carla Morrison as a way to cope. 

“I listen to that song — it gives me at least those three to four minutes to mourn what happened, but that’s only a couple minutes for a lifetime’s worth of trauma,” he said.

At the time of the interview, Reyes was not available to join.  Alvarez suspects her absence was because five people were detained on the Eastside by the Milpas area in Santa Barbara, as reported by 805 Immigrant Coalition on Instagram. 

How To Get Involved

There are a lot of parents and young kids who want to get involved, but they are not the right fit to be in the field because they are underage or it would endanger their family members who might be undocumented, Alvarez said.

But, there is a role for everyone in the Rapid Response Network, she said.

“It’s misconstrued that people think the Rapid Response Network is just people who follow and chase ICE,” she said.

Instead, she directs volunteers to help elsewhere like their countywide food pantries or the organization’s marker project. The marker project is a sign that honors a community member detained by ICE and alerts community members their neighbor has been taken.

Recently, the grassroots organization received $100,000 in grant money from the city. However, Hernandez says all the money is going toward providing affected families emergency assistance. 

“We need to remind ourselves that this is not normal, we should never normalize this and we need to do more than showing up for protests,” said Leslie Marin, California UndocuFund network coordinator.

Hernandez says the best way to stay informed is to follow their social media where they post about ICE activity and detainments across three counties.