•On Oct. 27, Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) joined the list of government officials issuing statements to condemn Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers’ Oct. 21 detainment of Santa Maria-resident Erik Zepeda, an American citizen, while he was walking to Santa Maria High School. The 20-year-old, diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities, is enrolled in an adult education program at the school. ICE told the Sun via email that officers mistook Zepeda for a wanted illegal alien. Both Zepeda and Santa Maria High School stated that upon Zepeda’s arrival to school after his ICE encounter, a school administrator called an ambulance. Zepeda then went into surgery for a wrist that was broken in three places. “Erik is a U.S. citizen who was simply walking to school, and ICE agents broke his wrist. This is not immigration enforcement or public safety. It’s reckless, indiscriminate violence, and it’s indefensible,” Rivas said in his statement. In a release from Rivas’ office, Assemblymember Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara) described “the Trump administration’s secret police” as hitting a new low. “Our community stands with Erik and rejects the lawless, dangerous enforcement campaign that put Erik in harm’s way,” Hart said. “The case of Erik, a California-born American citizen, is a startling reminder of the disregard for the rule of law and common decency that we are seeing from the agents deployed on our streets.” On Oct. 30, U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin and ICE Acting Director David Venturella to demand a thorough investigation into Central Coast-based immigration enforcement operations, following Zepeda’s detention. “Beyond this incident, I have seen alarming reports of U.S. citizens being detained and injured,” Carbajal stated, “and heard of families and farmworkers with no criminal record who have been caught up in aggressive interior enforcement actions.”
•State Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) commented on State Attorney General Rob Bonta’s lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to block state Senate Bill 1280—which Laird authored in 2024 to prohibit the sale of certain single-use propane cylinders beginning Jan. 1, 2028. “I authored SB 1280 to save taxpayers the cost of disposing of used propane canisters, and to protect workers and communities from the fire and explosion risks posed by propane cylinders thrown away in our parks and beaches,” Laird stated. “Let’s be clear: This law doesn’t ban propane. It simply replaces dangerous single-use cylinders with refillable alternatives. Yet the Trump administration would rather protect a company’s business model than the safety of California workers and taxpayers.”
•Co-chaired by Assemblymembers Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) and Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara), the California Legislative Central Coast Caucus submitted an Oct. 30 letter to the Bureau of Land Management regarding the December oil and gas lease sale in Central California and on the Central Coast. “The administration’s proposal to auction off 43 parcels of land, totaling about 35,000 acres, in Kern, Kings, San Luis Obispo, and Fresno counties is unnecessary and will harm critical environments, as around two-thirds of the land in these parcels directly borders the Carrizo Plain National Monument,” the caucus wrote. “Any oil spills in this region could contaminate the environment and jeopardize the endangered plant and animal species found within the monument. … Super bloom events regularly attract significant tourism to the area, with people from all over the nation traveling to the site to experience them. Increasing environmentally hazardous drilling operations in the area could jeopardize this fledgling industry.”
This article appears in November 5 – November 12, 2026.
