Tensions are rising in Santa Barbara County over President-elect Donald Trump’s vow to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. The Board of Supervisors and immigrant rights groups are voicing concerns that Sheriff Bill Brown is too accommodating to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
During a recent meeting, Santa Barbara County Supervisors peppered Brown with questions about his department’s annual report on its partnership with ICE.
The report showed that ICE made more requests to gain access to locally incarcerated people than the previous year and that five people were turned over to ICE after serving their jail sentences. That was up from two last year.
Supervisor Laura Capps said ICE requests could increase exponentially after Trump takes office in January. She asked Brown about his process for determining who is handed over to immigration enforcement.
“Trying to tease out the processes of cooperation of making sure your systems are as finely tuned as possible when dealing with such emotional, petrifying consequences when dealing with people’s lives,” Capps said.
Under guidelines from the State Attorney General, the Sheriff’s Office is not required to alert ICE when it arrests an undocumented migrant. Brown said that he only responds to ICE requests when a crime is violent or especially depraved, and only after a conviction.
That did little to appease Prinitiva Hernandez, the executive director of 805UndocuFund, which provides emergency financial aid to undocumented residents. She said people undocumented are afraid of what’s coming.
“They're not able to distinguish whether ICE is coming here to our communities from the federal orders or if it's happening at the county jails. To them, ICE is ICE and fear is fear and by the sheriff voluntarily cooperating you are adding to that,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez urged the Board to pass an ordinance that bars local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration officials, as supervisors have done in Los Angeles, San Diego and other California counties.
