The Santa Maria City Council took a small step to show support for the immigrant community, but stopped short of adopting other stronger measures and statements sought by activists or approved by neighboring agencies.
Tuesday’s topic came after months of requests for the council in Santa Barbara County’s largest city to take action as escalating immigration enforcement has spread fear in the community.
The adopted resolution focuses on actions of Santa Maria police officers, reinforcing that they don’t cooperate with federal immigration agents.
Instead, local police officers’ “focus and commitment is community safety and crime prevention, and continues to foster trust and cooperation,” the resolutions says.
The council voted 4-1 to approve the resolution, with Councilmember Gloria Soto opposed.
Reading some murder victims’ names, Mayor Alice Patino recounted the series of killings spanning several years attributed to MS-13 members in the country illegally. She also cited a violent attack on a woman in her Santa Maria home by another undocumented immigrant.
“I think it’s really sad when you see a community be taken hostage by a gang and that’s what happened to us. It’s very tragic and very very sad,” Patino said.
The city lacks authority over immigration enforcement efforts, she added, likening any measures taken locally to “putting a band-aid on a huge surgical wound.”
“I do not want Santa Maria as a sanctuary city. I do not want to protect criminals in the city of Santa Maria,” she added.
Councilmember Maribel Aguilera shared about helping families fearing immigration enforcement ations, saying this includes volunteering to take children to school or assisting scared parents in other ways.
“My intent was to have a resolution where we made it clear that the city of Santa Maria stands with the immigrants,” Aguilera-Hernandez said.
“It is not about creating division or creating more hate. It’s not us versus them. It is about our neighbors, our community, working together to help each other.”
But Soto called the draft proposal lacking, suggesting several changes strengthening the language including that “the City Council deeply affirms its support for all residents in Santa Maria regardless of immigrant status.”
She proposed adding language noting immigrants contribute to the economy, workforce, schools and community along with having deep multi-generational roots in the Santa Maria Valley.
Soto also suggested adding that “recent federal immigrant enforcement activity has caused fear, trauma and disruption for families, workers and students in Santa Maria, undermining community trust and public safety.”
Additionally, she sought the inclusion of a requirement that city employees should receive training to ensure all residents can access city services without fear.
Her colleagues declined to add any of Soto’s various suggestions, including banning Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from staging in city parking lots.
Before the mayor adjourned the meeting, Soto said she wanted to end it in honor and to recognize those who have died due to ICE actions or while in their custody, reading off multiple names from incidents in Los Angeles, Minnesota and other locations.
Many of audience members who attended the meeting participated in a rally in front of City Hall demanding “ICE out of 805” before the council meeting starts.
The agenda item focused only on the resolution, stopping short of activists’ push for the council to appoint an ad hoc committee to handle immigration enforcement measures.
Nonprofit groups monitoring ICE action say 1,571 people in Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties have been taken into custody, with 401 of those in the Santa Maria area.
Students spoke about friends and classmates living with constant fear of family separation.
A woman shared about two teenagers who recorded federal officers chasing and tackling a man on the westside of the city and kicking him in the face although his hands were bound.
“Forming an ad hoc committee is not a radical step. It is absolutely the least you all can do to grapple seriously with the fear and harm our community’s experiencing,” said Patrica Solorio, deputy director of the Fund for Santa Barbara.
An ad hoc committee would deliver education, dialogue, accountability, she said.
“This is the opportunity to do the minimum that leadership requires and to stand on the right side of history,” Solorio added.