From 2017 and 2018, contacts went down by 21 percent between agents with ICE — the Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch of Homeland Security — and the Santa Barbara County Jail over undocumented inmates. In addition, 72 percent fewer undocumented inmates — from 351 to 98 — were picked up by federal authorities and taken into custody. But for a majority of Santa Barbara County supervisors, who are mindful of the increased fear immigration agents have instilled in immigrant communities during the Trump administration, that was beyond their comfort levels.
Supervisors Das Williams, Joan Hartmann, and Gregg Hart all expressed concern at Tuesday’s meeting that any interaction between the Sheriff’s Office and ICE would undermine the trust local law enforcement must maintain with the immigrant community in order to better serve the entire community. “Local law enforcement is being corrupted into a larger system of vilifying immigrants,” Hartmann stated.
Sheriff Bill Brown, who delivered an annual report on his office’s involvement with ICE as state law mandates, countered that even if 99 percent of immigrants “are basically good, hardworking people,” there’s still a small percentage “who prey on members of the community and disproportionately on the immigrant community.” Brown highlighted 10 of the 98, whom he said included child molesters and arsonists. Supervisors Hart and Williams wanted to know what crimes the other 88 had been held for and pointedly pressed Brown to provide more complete details next year, when he’s legally obligated to hold the next public hearing. Brown added that 60 of the 98 were held on felony charges, 41 had been held three times, 25 five times, and four 20 times or more. Twenty-three, he said, had been deported before.