A Carpinteria man jumped a fence into a secured County Jail area while trying to flee federal immigration enforcement agents Friday and was cited for trespassing, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said. 

The man, 25-year-old Jhonathan Cosme Antonio, had been released from jail custody Friday morning, sheriff’s spokesperson Raquel Zick said. 

At 8:34 a.m., the driver of a vehicle blocking the entrance to the Sheriff’s Office headquarters and jail complex, at 4434 Calle Real, told a sheriff’s deputy they were with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

They said they had “attempted to apprehend a suspect who fled on foot and jumped a fence along the east side of the jail perimeter,” Zick said. 

The deputy saw Cosme Antonio hiding between storage containers and noticed that he was injured from jumping the fence, according to Zick. 

Fire and medical personnel responded to the scene and transported Cosme Antonio to the hospital with “non-life-threatening injuries,” according to the Sheriff’s Office. 

Cosme Antonio was cited for trespassing, Zick said. 

It was unclear if he was detained by ICE on Friday or remained in the hospital.

About one hour after the initial incident, an unmarked ICE vehicle reportedly crashed into a curb and embankment near the Sheriff’s Office headquarters. 

Deputies responded to “assist with keeping the peace” while ICE had a tow truck respond to remove the disabled vehicle, Zick said.

“Deputies provided traffic control to assist the tow truck with accessing the vehicle and clearing the roadway,” she said in a statement. 

Bystander video and reporting from local media show the vehicle leaking fluid into a drain, and responders putting absorbent on the spill. Observers from local immigration activist groups such as SB Resiste were at the scene documenting the incident. 

ICE representatives did not respond Friday to questions about these incidents. 

TRUTH Act 

The Sheriff’s Office did not respond Friday to questions about Cosme Antonio’s time in custody.

Noozhawk also inquired about this incident and the TRUTH Act, which outlines how sheriff’s offices can cooperate with ICE regarding people in custody. Zick referred Noozhawk to the California Public Records Act Portal, where a request for information was filed Friday afternoon. 

Under state law, the Sheriff’s Office is not required to alert ICE when an undocumented person is arrested, but it may alert ICE if a person is accused of specific crimes. 

ICE regularly submits requests for access to people in jail custody, which the Sheriff’s Office evaluates. If the request is approved, those inmates can be re-arrested by ICE at their release from jail. 

The Sheriff’s Office gives annual updates on the TRUTH Act to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. 

Undersheriff Craig Bonner said the requests for access were increasing in 2025, but the number of people in jail custody who qualify and are re-arrested by ICE seemed to be trending downward. He gave the most recent presentation in May 2025. 

Local Law Enforcement and ICE Operations

Local law enforcement officials have repeatedly said their agencies do not interfere with and do not cooperate with immigration enforcement operations. 

However, police officers and sheriff’s deputies do sometimes respond to these operations, for what leaders say is traffic control, crowd control, or keeping the peace. They sometimes direct legal observers and bystanders to get out of the street, or step away from ICE agents conducting operations, as seen in several recent incidents. 

In a downtown Santa Barbara incident last month, federal agents detained a man they accused of vandalizing an unmarked ICE vehicle by slashing its tire. They were seen on video placing the man in a headlock and pepper spraying another man who confronted them. 

The agents then drove the disabled vehicle to the Santa Barbara Police Department headquarters at 215 E. Figueroa St. 

The police department allowed ICE to park the vehicle in the headquarters parking lot until a tow truck could remove it.