Nearly a thousand people packed a Santa Barbara town hall at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara over the weekend. Crowds filled the main room, spilling into the courtyard and around the block. Residents pressed local lawmakers on how they would respond to President Donald Trump’s wave of executive orders and billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE activities.
Congressman Salud Carbajal and other Democratic lawmakers spoke at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara on Saturday and took questions from the packed crowd.
One attendee asked Carbajal how he plans to undo damage from the recent administrative actions– which include mass deportations and funding cuts for gender-affirming care. Carbajal said he’ll push for policies to protect rights he believes are threatened under the Trump administration.
“When it comes to civil rights– LGBTQ+ individuals, women, minorities– that damage is already being done,” Carbajal said. “So, we're going to have to go back and replenish a lot of those values, through policy, that have been eroded through this administration.”
Julissa Peña, executive director of the Immigrant Legal Defense Center, spoke about the Trump administration's recent crackdown on immigrants.
“Its intent is to eradicate immigrants’ due process rights by significantly limiting their access to legal representation, depriving people of having a fair chance of fighting their case in immigration court and expanding expedited removal processes,” Peña said.
Some of the other Democratic lawmakers in attendance were State Senator Monique Limón, Assemblymember Gregg Hart and Santa Barbara County Supervisor Laura Capps.
About 300 people filled the main hall and 150 stood in an overflow room. Another 500 people gathered outside, some of whom rallied against Trump’s latest actions.
