Santa Barbara County Takes A Formal Stand Against ICE Raids
Jarrod Zinn
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors formalized their action steps in response to increased immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
In a 4 to 0 vote at Tuesday’s meeting, with one abstention coming from supervisor Bob Nelson, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors formalized their action plans for protecting immigrant communities.
They added language to county policy to now prohibit face coverings and to require officer identification, budgeted 340 thousand dollars to provide legal and mental help to impacted youth in immigrant communities, and will take legal actions such as joining the ACLU’s lawsuits against ICE.
“It’s one of those difficult items that I’m not sure either side wants to fix,” said supervisor Steve Lavagnino at Tuesday’s meeting. “But I’m glad that we are on the record is pushing for something that makes sense.”
Board chair Laura Capps says federal law enforcement also has not provided any information on who has been detained, their immigration status, or where they are being held.
“We’ve asked ice for a list of those who’ve been detained,” says board chair Laura Capps. “We have not received that list. That seems like basic information that should be provided to another government agency. I invited ICE to speak to our board of Supervisors hearing they’ve ignored me I’ll make another invitation. We stand with our immigrant communities.”
The board agreed to ask the county sheriff to provide presentations about detentions after the fact, simply for more information and transparency.
While supervisor Nelson was in support of many elements of the resolution, he felt there were other elements he could not support as he said they were overpoliticized.
“Under different circumstances I might be able to get there, under these I can’t,” said Nelson at the meeting. “So having things in here that I can support and some things that I can’t support, I’m just going to abstain on this one.”
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