Lompoc City Council supports undocumented residents with formal resolution

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After filling Lompoc’s City Council chambers for three meetings in a row, Voces Sin Fronteras received an answer to its request for support for the city’s undocumented immigrants. 

On April 1, the City Council unanimously directed staff to draft a resolution highlighting that support and reiterating existing city policy to abide by state laws restricting the ways in which local law enforcement can interact with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. One such law is Senate Bill 54, something Police Chief Kevin Martin said the city has complied with for years. 

“The Lompoc Police Department will not and has not participated in any immigration enforcement action,” Martin said during the April 1 meeting. “If a federal police officer calls for help, we are going to respond and make sure that they are safe. … We will make sure they are safe; we will make sure the community is safe.” 

Councilmember Steve Bridge said he was all for passing a resolution that would give peace of mind to some of the city’s residents.

“A significant number of the community has told us that they feel unsafe, and so they want us to support it, and we’re doing it to help them feel safe,” Bridge said. 

Councilmember Dirk Starbuck wondered why the city would do something like this.

“All we’re doing here is writing a resolution that’s saying what we’re already doing here,” Starbuck said. “What the hell?”

While the council unanimously voted to have a resolution supporting undocumented residents come back at its next meeting, it didn’t pass other asks in the agenda item put forward by Councilmember Jeremy Ball. Those included allocating city funds for educating residents about their rights and supporting proposed bills that are currently making their way through the Legislature. Ball said he was OK with that.

“If you had asked me four or five years ago, when I first ran, I would have been a lot more righteous,” Ball said. “If there is openness to supporting most of this ask, … I think that’s a good thing.” 

Some of the people who spoke in support of the resolution during public comment said they weren’t paid protesters, despite being accused of it in previous meetings. One Voces Sin Fronteras member said that the Hispanic and Latino community contributes to Lompoc’s culture and economy in countless ways.

“We are asking for visibility in the decisions that shape our lives. We are asking to be heard,” the member said. 

Darlene Villanueva from 805 UndocuFund said that while ICE has always been in Lompoc, the Trump administration has instilled fear in community members. 

Ball said the issue was a difficult one for him, but not nearly as difficult for him as “it is for people who have brown skin.” 

“My hands are tied in a lot of ways but my mouth is not shut,” Ball said. “No human is illegal. … Every single person in this community deserves to have a little bit of assurance.”

This article appears in Apr 10-20, 2025.