The remnants of a contentious debate over the opening of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing facility in Santa Maria linger. Five years ago, thousands of protesters showed up at a Santa Maria Planning Commission meeting to oppose the construction of an ICE facility within the city. Vocal opponents later crowded the City Council meeting where council members supported the commission’s decision to permit the project.
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At the time, residents and immigration advocates were concerned about this facility instilling a sense of fear in the local immigrant community—and over the past five years, locals have continued to express misgivings about the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office’s relationship with ICE.
On Sept. 17, during Sheriff Bill Brown’s annual update on his office’s interactions with the federal immigration agency, the county Board of Supervisors and members of the public responded to recent data against the backdrop of U.S. policy.
“This isn’t taking place in a vacuum,” 3rd District Supervisor Joan Hartmann said during the meeting. “It’s taking place in a national context where immigrants are being vilified and scapegoated.”
Locally, August 2015 saw another wave of protests break out after an undocumented immigrant was charged for the murder of Lompoc resident Marilyn Pharis. Dueling protests took place near the Santa Maria courthouse, with one side claiming the existing immigration policies at the time contributed to Pharis’ death, while the other side pushed back on the Pharis case being used to generalize a group of people.
After the 2016 presidential election, the national conversation over immigration became even more contentious. Donald Trump cited Pharis’ story throughout his campaign, and as president he’s made immigration reform a central issue, with some controversial changes.
And in 2018, Central Coast residents gathered outside Santa Maria’s ICE facility to protest some of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
At the Sept. 17 meeting, Sheriff Brown stated numerous times that his office doesn’t enforce immigration laws. However, his office does cooperate with ICE to the extent allowed by state law.
“We need to recognize our job is not immigration enforcement, but we also need to recognize that our job is to protect the public … in such a way that we can see to it that those who do prey upon our community, if there is an opportunity for them to be removed from the community … we should exercise that,” Brown said.
Brown said that inmates who are arrested and booked into the Santa Barbara County Jail have their fingerprints scanned, which is information ICE can obtain through the Department of Justice. ICE is then able to request more information from the county jail to learn details about a specific inmate.
Jail staff members would then look through the inmate’s criminal history and existing charges to determine if the person has committed an offense that allows the Sheriff’s Office to comply with ICE’s request.
During the presentation, Brown said ICE requested information on about 414 inmates in 2018, which was about 2.9 percent of the total inmate population last year. This is a decrease from the 526 inmates that ICE requested information for in 2017.
According to state law, local law enforcement agencies can only comply with ICE’s information requests if inmates have committed serious or dangerous crimes. If jail staff members find a qualifying offense, they then provide information about the inmate to ICE, while also informing the inmate of this notification.
Brown said that based on the numbers, he believes his office has found the right balance between cooperating with ICE and ensuring the community understands that his deputies aren’t enforcing immigration laws.
Although responding to ICE’s requests is the only way the Sheriff’s Office directly cooperates with the federal agency, ICE can monitor when inmates get released from the county jail through a public database on the Sheriff’s Office website. Last year, ICE picked up 98 inmates after they were released from the jail, which is fewer than the 351 picked up in 2017.
The Sept. 17 meeting served as a follow-up to a similar presentation Brown gave in December 2018. State law requires local jurisdictions where law enforcement agencies have cooperated with ICE to hold these public forums annually.
Most of the 14 people who spoke during the public comment period disagreed with the sheriff’s assessment that his office has found the right balance. Speakers such as Frank Rodriguez, a policy advocate for Central Coast Alliance United for A Sustainable Economy (CAUSE), encouraged the county to follow Santa Cruz County’s lead, where the Sheriff’s Office refuses to cooperate with ICE.
CAUSE Community Organizer Abraham Melendrez pushed back on the “rhetoric” used at the meeting, which he said contributes to the fear some members of the immigrant community are feeling.
“Now, more than ever, we need to empower, not criminalize, our immigrant community,” Melendrez said. “We’ve seen a lot of that criminalization language in the meeting, and I think it speaks to the real terror that’s happening in our communities.”
Some supervisors shared their own concerns about this cooperation with ICE, the mistrust it creates in the community, and the potential consequences that could arise—including fewer people receiving the help they need.
Second District Supervisor Gregg Hart said the county experienced a significant decrease in the number of families that signed up for free meal programs over the summer.
First District Supervisor Das Williams said he is concerned that some immigrants may be afraid to participate in the 2020 census, which could lead to an undercount that affects the entire county.
“All types of funding that this community receives, everything under the sun … is dependent upon that accurate count in the census and if people are afraid to be counted, it will hurt all our community,” Williams said.
After a lengthy conversation, supervisors unanimously agreed to file and accept the sheriff’s report with some minor requests for next year’s discussion. Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said this isn’t an issue that’s going to be solved at a county hearing. It’s up to Congress to work on immigration reform legislation.
“This is a bigger problem than just us at the county,” Lavagnino said. “But I really feel like there’s nothing new under the sun on this matter. As far as it goes, locally, what we’re doing is what we’re required to do.”
Reach Staff Writer Zac Ezzone at zezzone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 26 – Oct 3, 2019.