A UC Santa Barbara employee on Tuesday became the latest community member to be pepper-sprayed by federal immigration agents in the South Coast area.
Twelve-year Santa Barbara resident and U.S. citizen Zach Cosseboom was at the Santa Barbara County Jail on Tuesday morning, not because he had been arrested, but as a volunteer observer with immigrant advocacy group SB Resiste.
The 37-year-old usually works in rapid response, which means surveilling reported U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Santa Barbara, but also sometimes observes activity at the jail at 4436 Calle Real. ICE agents have had a regular presence at the jail in the past year.
That morning, SB Resiste and other immigrant advocacy groups posted online about the federal immigration enforcement activity at the jail around 6:30 a.m., and Cosseboom and his wife, Ana Garcia, drove there to observe the agents.
He observed six federal immigration enforcement agents wearing “Police ICE” vests and buff-style masks in the jail’s Inmate Reception Center lobby. It has a “sally port” to access the inside of the jail.
However, his volunteer shift on Tuesday ended with a visit to Cottage Health’s emergency room after one of the six federal agents pepper-sprayed him at close range during an incident caught on video.
The agents also reportedly detained someone who was released from Sheriff’s Office jail custody, according to Anthony Rodriguez, 805UndocuFund rapid response organizer.
Cosseboom estimates the agent was at most 2 feet away from him when the agent deployed the spray. The spray also hit Garcia and filled the lobby air.
“I guess my original thought was, ‘How do I stay in it?’ and I was like, ‘Oh, this isn’t as bad as I thought,’” Cosseboom said. “And then I was like, ‘OK, this is pretty crappy.’”
He tried to endure the pain and record the incident on his phone, Cosseboom said.
“I felt a little helpless for a moment,” he said.
A separate volunteer captured the moment on video and shared it with Noozhawk.
The video shows Cosseboom, wearing a blue tank top, speaking to one of the six agents in the lobby, being physically pushed back before another agent raises a black canister to dispense a yellow spray.
The agent told him to “stay back,” while Cosseboom responded by telling him not to touch him, he recalled.
Garcia also captured the moment the spray hit them and her phone, which she was using to record on Facebook Live, leaving the camera blurry.
“(The ICE agents) were all coughing and coming out,” Garcia said. “It totally took over the entire (space). It’s very pungent and intense, so everybody cleared out.”
The pair said the agents tried to go back into the lobby, reportedly waiting for a specific person to be released from custody, but kept coming out for air because of the spray.
At least eight people have been pepper-sprayed by federal agents in the South Coast area this year, according to 805UndocuFund’s internal records, Rodriguez said.
Earlier this year, during two separate incidents, ICE agents pepper-sprayed a Santa Barbara Eastside woman who was recording enforcement activity with her phone and, a month later, a local criminal defense attorney who approached agents that were holding a man on the ground.
ICE representatives did not respond to a second Noozhawk request for comment about the jail lobby incident as of Friday afternoon.
Cosseboom said he was grateful for the other volunteers at the scene who tried to help him get the spray out of his eyes.
He drove home and took a shower before visiting the Cottage Health emergency room. He underwent vision tests and had his eyes flushed out, he said.
After he was discharged, he reported having some lingering burning on his chest and arm.
“I was fine the next day. Physically, I just had a slight headache and (was) a little tired and emotionally exhausted,” he said.
He also requested that a report be taken on the incident, and deputies completed a courtesy report.
The Sheriff’s Office is not investigating the incident since it involved federal agents, according to Sheriff’s Office public information officer Raquel Zick.
Cosseboom told Noozhawk that he is disappointed in the lack of response from local law enforcement.
The IRC lobby is not typically staffed by Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office personnel, according to Zick.
At the time of the Tuesday incident, no Sheriff’s Office deputies or other Sheriff’s Office staff were present in that lobby, she added.
Cosseboom said three sheriff’s deputies were standing outside the doors to the Sheriff’s Office headquarters, which is in the same area as the jail complex along Calle Real, on Tuesday morning.
“I literally told him I was assaulted and they were just like, ‘Nope, we are not involved with ICE,’” he said.
He also believes that sheriff’s deputies could see into the IRC lobby through windows on the door leading into the jail because he had rung the intercom button.
Garcia, a longtime local activist, said her husband hasn’t always been involved in community and activist spaces.
Cosseboom said he considers himself easygoing, enjoys spending time with his wife and dogs, and claims he’s never been in trouble with law enforcement before, besides “maybe a speeding ticket.”
He began getting involved after the Glass House immigration raids in Carpinteria and participated in ICE patrolling to support Garcia’s volunteer work and ensure her safety.
His desire to volunteer was “cemented” last December when federal immigration activity occurred at Santa Barbara City College’s West Campus parking lot and in the Westside neighborhood, he told Noozhawk.
“I made a ton of friends and feel like there’s an actual community that if something goes down, like in the last few days, someone has my back,” he said.
Cosseboom also said he’s reached out to various Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors about the ICE agent’s activity at the jail and hopes they do something soon.
In the days after he was pepper-sprayed, Cosseboom took to his social media to thank those who checked up on him.
“I am well,” he wrote, “and the fight for due process rights for ‘all persons’ will continue.”
