Emotions ran high as hundreds of people packed a Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting, demanding the county take a stand against the region’s recent immigration raids.
"I am disgusted and heartbroken, as I watch the fabric of our democracy torn apart," said Victoria Vas, one of the many who spoke. "It's happening every single day in our community," she said, choking back tears. "We need immediate, substantial action."
There have been numerous immigration arrests in the region during the last six weeks. But last week’s raids in Carpinteria and Camarillo with a large, military style presence took anger, concern, and fear to a new level.
"I think the attacks on our immigrant population are unfair, and in some cases illegal," said Annette Cordero. "I don't think you can be an ethical human being and stand by quietly while other human beings are being treated so abysmally."
Some of the people who work directly with immigrant families say the large-scale raids took fear to a new level.
"Every day that things escalate, it does spread the fear and panic in the community," said Primitiva Hernandez, Executive Director of 805Undocufund, a nonprofit support group helping undocumented residents of the region. "Families are having to make the very difficult decision over whether, every single day, they risk not returning home because they still have to earn a living. Many people have done alternative living arrangements. We've heard of people staying close to fields so they don't risk being apprehended going from their home to the field."
Some people say that while they didn’t want to see it happen, they aren’t surprised Carpinteria was targeted. Deborah Dentler is with the Carpinteria Immigrant Rights Coalition.
"Though we are a small beach town, kind of sleepy and low key most of the time, we did predict that ICE would direct its activities at our agricultural and service workers, and make an example out of a small town like ours," said Dentler. "That's exactly what happened." Her group has been working to provide legal aid to the community.
"The heavily armed response has generated a hostile community response," said Santa Barbara County District Attorney John Savrnoch. "Now, the government is saying we need an even heavier armed response because of this hostile community response. The problem was created by the disproportionate use of force in the beginning."
Savrnoch said he’s hoping to cool everyone's response, but he fears that the federal government will escalate its operations, generating more anger.
"I don't want people who support immigrant rights being arrested. I don't want people that support immigrants rights being hurt. I don't want federal officers being hurt, because they are doing what authorities tell them. People are going to get hurt. This is a powder keg. I want to defuse it, but the more military force shown, the more public outcry there is against it."
Santa Barbara County Supervisors told the crowd that there are legal limitations on their actions. They can’t stop or block federal operations.
They did discuss several ideas, including steps to push federal agents to follow due process. Another idea being explored is protecting the personal information of people in county programs from the federal government. The board asked county staff members to come back with proposals for action based on the ideas they discussed.
The county didn’t act on immigrant support groups' request for a million-dollar grant to help impacted families with support services. The financially squeezed county had already allocated more than $300,000 to help with legal aid for impacted children and emotional support efforts.
