Ryder Christ
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown has declined to comment on a letter from Congressman Salud Carbajal that calls on him to speak out against what Carbajal describes as “the violent and militarized mass deportation campaign” carried out by the Trump Administration.
Carbajal released the letter on July 25. A spokesperson for the Sheriff told News Channel that Brown would not issue a separate statement. Instead, his remarks during the July 15 Board of Supervisors meeting, delivered in response to the July 10 federal operation at Glass House Farms, may be used in place of a formal comment.
Carbajal believes the Sheriff’s unique position as president of the Major County Sheriffs of America gives him the ability to call for the de-escalation of what he describes as an “attack” on immigrant communities. Sheriff Brown argues that the solution to illegal immigration must come through legislation — something Carbajal could help draft or support.
Should the public urge Congressman Carbajal to pursue federal reform, or expect local leaders like Sheriff Brown to speak out about federal immigration tactics?
Diverging Views on Sheriff’s Role in Immigration Debate
News Channel invited State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson and former Santa Barbara City Councilman Dale Francisco to share their perspectives on Carbajal’s letter and Sheriff Brown’s response — or lack of one.
Francisco argued Brown should ignore the letter, framing it as a political maneuver. “It’s a publicity stunt. Bill Brown is the only countywide elected Republican, and … these kinds of open letters, inflammatory open letters I might add, are meant to embarrass Bill Brown … and also to shore up Carbajal’s support,” Francisco said.
Jackson took the opposite stance, saying the letter’s intent was to urge de-escalation and protect due process during immigration enforcement operations. “There is no reason that these raids are being conducted with the use of military-style weapons … the ask was to please tone it down … to really make sure that there is restraint … and Bill Brown was in a position to do something about it and apparently didn’t.”
When the discussion turned to solutions, Jackson emphasized the need for federal legislation. She cited a bipartisan immigration bill from 2024 that she said could have addressed many concerns but was ultimately blocked. “Needs to be federal legislation … in 2024 there was a bipartisan, a strong bipartisan bill … [but] Donald Trump said … he did not want this bill to pass … and so the bill was defeated … This is not something that Trump wants to be resolved because for him this is an issue that divides our country.”
Francisco pushed back, saying the 2024 proposal was flawed. “That so-called bipartisan bill allowed 4,000 people to come into this country every day … It was a bad bill and I’m glad it didn’t happen … the [revised] Dignity Act … could potentially be acceptable … Congress has to change the law, and we have to protect the people in our community who have been here for 30 years … but who are illegally present and there has to be a legal solution for that.” The Dignity Act, co-sponsored by Carbajal, seeks to provide legal status for long-term undocumented residents while bolstering border security.
Jackson also criticized the conduct of recent ICE-led operations, such as the July 10 Glass House Farms enforcement action, which Brown has said his office was not involved in. “ICE ignores federal law. They’re not searching using search warrants or arrest warrants … They are not giving people due process. People are entitled to legal counsel. They’re entitled to a hearing,” Jackson said.
Sheriff Brown Emphasizes Legal Boundaries
In his public remarks, Sheriff Bill Brown reiterated that the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office had no role in the July 10 immigration operation at Glass House Farms in Carpinteria, which was led by Homeland Security Investigations, a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We do not participate in immigration enforcement, including assisting with ICE operations, nor do we interfere with those operations,” Brown said. “The sheriff’s office adheres to SB 54, the California Values Act.”
SB 54 prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies in California from using their resources to assist federal immigration enforcement—such as investigating or detaining individuals based on immigration status—except in narrowly defined circumstances.
“We only cooperate with ICE as permitted under SB 54, that California law, and that’s only with respect to notifying them of the release of criminal undocumented immigrants who are in our custody. That are also wanted by that law enforcement agency.”
Brown noted that his department received only a few minutes’ notice for “deconfliction purposes,” a standard protocol meant to prevent operational overlap or safety issues. Deputies did not respond to the scene, and the California Highway Patrol handled traffic control.
Brown also challenged community descriptions of the operations in Carpinteria and Camarillo as raids.
“The actions that occurred were not a raid or a sweep. These were the service of two federal judge-signed search warrants at these two locations, and they were served in furtherance of a criminal investigation,” he said.
Federal authorities reported that the operations resulted in at least 361 arrests, including the rescue of 14 children from suspected exploitation or trafficking.
Glass House Brands responded on August 4, clarifying that only nine of its own employees were detained or arrested—all over age 21—and that the remaining individuals were either third-party contractor workers or unaffiliated with the company. The company emphasized that none of the alleged minors were employed by Glass House.
Major County Sheriffs of America’s Role in Immigration Policy
The Major County Sheriffs of America (MCSA) is a national organization of the largest elected sheriff’s offices in the U.S., representing both Democratic and Republican leaders. Under Sheriff Bill Brown’s leadership as MCSA president, the group has pushed for vigorous border enforcement strategies.
Sheriff Michael Chapman appeared before the House Homeland Security Committee on December 10, 2024, during a hearing titled “Open Border Policies and Threats to Law Enforcement,” where he outlined MCSA’s top priorities: building a border wall, enforcing immigration laws, expanding tools like facial recognition and license-plate readers, strengthening local-federal enforcement partnerships, and ramping up resources to combat cartels and drug trafficking.
The MCSA also supported the “Big Beautiful Bill,” the 2025 reconciliation package that has since become law. This sweeping legislation, officially signed by President Trump on July 4, 2025, injects massive funding—over $100 billion through 2029—into immigration and border security efforts. It includes billions for ICE expansion (including detention facilities and deportation operations), border infrastructure and technology, and substantial grants to state and local agencies.
Sheriff Brown says his role is to foster those federal connections and advocate for law enforcement resources—but critics say his simultaneous statements criticizing masked raids and leading MCSA’s push for increased federal enforcement funding send mixed signals. “The Sheriff admits that heavy-handed, masked immigration raids in our community are ‘a bad look’ one day — yet the next, he’s championing the Trump Administration’s mass deportation agenda in D.C.,” said Goleta School Board Member Ethan Bertrand, who helped organize Carbajal’s letter.
“While the MCSA claims to be above partisan politics, it is among the loudest cheerleaders of the Trump Administration’s Big Beautiful Bill … We need Sheriff Brown to put Santa Barbara County values over the interests of his fellow sheriffs.”
Brown’s Call for Comprehensive Reform
While declining to weigh in directly on Carbajal’s letter, Brown has repeatedly said the long-term solution to illegal immigration is not in his hands but in Congress passing comprehensive reform.
“We have winked and nodded at this problem for the last 50 years, and these people are our neighbors. They’re part of our community. They’re entwined into our economy. And you know we have this disconnect when we’re now trying to solve it simply by deporting people. There’s got to be a comprehensive program and it’s gonna take both parties to make that happen,” Brown said.
He has urged lawmakers to stop using immigration as a political wedge and to pass legislation that addresses border security, temporary work visas, and legal pathways for longtime residents.
“It’s not a black-and-white issue,” Brown said. “There are an incredible amount of gray areas.”
Carbajal’s Letter Calls for Action
On July 25, Congressman Salud Carbajal and dozens of local officials — including city council members, school board trustees, and state legislators — sent a joint letter urging Sheriff Brown to publicly oppose the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics and advocate for change in Washington, D.C.
“Hard-working people have been taken into custody at gunpoint by masked agents,” the letter reads. “Young children have been left to survive without their parents. Community members have been detained because their race and appearance trigger agents’ ‘reasonable suspicion.’”
The letter invokes Brown’s role as president of the Major County Sheriffs of America: “We call on you to do everything within your power… to publicly stand up against the administration’s dangerous immigration enforcement campaign.”
Carbajal declined to comment directly on his letter to Brown. Instead, he outlined how he is working to reform immigration policy, noting, “We’re giving this president a few bipartisan bills.” He said he has co-sponsored several bipartisan measures, including the Dignity Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, and that immigration reform now rests with the Senate and the President. “It’s two bipartisan pieces of legislation that give this president no excuse to not reform the rest of our immigration system now that he’s done and gotten all these resources to do all these draconian aggressive ridiculous actions that many of us are seeing play out.”
The Farm Workforce Modernization Act would give certain undocumented farmworkers and their families a chance to earn legal status through continued agricultural work, while also overhauling the H-2A visa program to allow year-round hiring and requiring E-Verify to confirm legal work status in the agriculture industry.
The Dignity Act proposes granting legal status and protections to undocumented immigrants already living in the United States, reforming asylum screening processes to ensure access to review and counsel, creating new regional processing centers so migrants are not forced to the U.S.-Mexico border, modernizing land ports of entry, mandating accountability for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and providing a pathway to citizenship for “Dreamers.”
“Our country needs to reform our broken immigration system,” Carbajal said. “Immigrants have long been key to the American economy’s success, and I believe it’s in our country’s best interests to ensure the world’s talent can continue to come here. I’m proud to co-sponsor the bipartisan Dignity Act to provide a commonsense solution that will create improved pathways for legal immigration while bolstering our border security.”
Both the Dignity Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act have been referred to committees and are awaiting consideration. Carbajal’s office also cited other immigration-related measures, such as the Fight for American Dream Act and the Protect Patriot Parents Act.
Christy Lozano Issues Strong Rebuke
In a sharply worded response dated July 31, community advocate and former candidate for Santa Barbara County Superintendent of Schools Christy Lozano pushed back against Carbajal’s letter, accusing its 29 signatories of attempting to “undermine our federal government” and elicit “wrongful action” from Sheriff Brown.
“These 29 people need to be voted out next election cycle for this action alone,” Lozano wrote.
Lozano cited ICE’s public statement following the July 10 operation, which named several individuals arrested with prior convictions for rape, kidnapping, child cruelty, and narcotics trafficking. She emphasized the federal agency’s efforts to rescue unaccompanied minors and screen all detainees for human trafficking.
“Salud Carbajal and his cronies are asking our elected Sheriff Bill Brown to oppose the federal government mandate and to not support the removal of 13 felons from our community,” she wrote.
“Predominantly serious lawbreakers and people here illegally are the focus of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
Lozano argued that Carbajal’s framing misleads the public into believing that everyday Latino families were being targeted, when in her view, the operation targeted those accused of serious crimes.
Lozano argues that California’s “Sanctuary State” law limits Brown’s ability to work directly with federal agencies during immigration operations. “SB 54 is preventing the sheriff from being the liaison to the community, and so the federal government is [coming] in and having to do the job without his assistance,” Lozano said.
She concluded by expressing full support for ICE and Sheriff Brown: “We support the federal government and Sheriff Bill Brown in the difficult job of handling these matters professionally with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.”
A Message to the Immigrant Community
During the Board of Supervisors meeting, Brown expressed concern about the emotional toll these federal operations have had on the community.
“There are some concerns that I share… in terms of the impact that accelerated ICE arrests are having on our communities,” Brown said. “People [are] afraid to go out, to go to work, afraid to send their children to school.”
He reassured residents that his deputies do not ask about immigration status and encouraged undocumented individuals to report crimes without fear of deportation.
“We are here to protect and serve everyone in our community, again, regardless of their immigration status,” he said. “We want them to come to us.”
Federal vs. Local: A Deliberate Line
Brown repeatedly emphasized the legal distinction between federal and local law enforcement, warning that any intervention during ICE operations would be “a recipe for disaster.”
“We are not going to intervene in a federal law enforcement operation,” he said. “No more than we would want them intervening in one of ours.”
He also addressed concerns about masked and unidentifiable agents—another point raised in Carbajal’s letter—acknowledging the optics were troubling but citing concerns about federal agents being “doxed” and targeted.
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