Looking to raise awareness of ongoing federal immigration raids, Indivisible Santa Maria — in collaboration with 805UndocuFund — organized an “Enough is Enough. Get ICE Out!” protest on Saturday.
Roughly 50 people gathered at the southwest corner of Broadway and McCoy, just half a mile from the Santa Maria Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) processing facility.
Official numbers released by the White House show that ICE has arrested 499 people in Santa Barbara County — 373 of those in Santa Maria — since January 2025.
Activists who track arrests locally say those numbers are much higher. Pam Gates, a member of Indivisible Santa Maria, said ICE has arrested 985 people since January 2025, with 641 of those in Santa Maria.
Gates said the protestors want to educate people that the detainments are ongoing.
“It’s all about education, and we want people to stand up and speak out about the activity of ICE here and across the country as well,” Gates said. “Luckily we have about 2,000 Indivisible Santa Maria members … and when we call for action, they turn up.”
Gates said after a “months-long process” with Santa Maria City Council to get it to form an ad hoc committee to evaluate county ICE activity, the proposal failed 2-2.
Gates said Indivisible will continue attending meetings to raise awareness of immigration issues.
“Young people are terrified to go to school. They’re afraid they’ll get picked up, and they’re afraid that their parents won’t be there when they get home,” Gates said.
Throughout the protest, Gary Jeffery, an incoming junior at Lompoc High School and president of the Lompoc Valley Black Student Union, regularly initiated chants.
He said he was representing his peers who weren’t able to come out today.
“A lot of young people don’t have the ability to come out to these kinds of events, whether that be their parents who don’t agree with them, or they don’t have transportation,” Jeffery said. “So it’s important that you’re always speaking out for someone.”
Jeffery urged city and county officials to “pick the right side” before the upcoming November election.
“I only have one thing to say to county officials, and that is that the election is this November. We will be paying attention. We will be watching. We do have our candidates, and so I really do hope that they pick the right side,” Jeffery said.
Rene Soto, a representative from 805UndocuFund, encouraged participants to stay involved. During a speech, he said there is a need to continue action beyond protests and rallies.
“Protests cannot be where our resistance ends — it has to be where more of it begins. Today we march. Tomorrow we organize,” Soto said.
