After a four-and-a-half-hour meeting at Goleta City Hall Monday night — and following a long public comment session packed with people testifying to the impacts of federal immigration enforcement on the local community — the Goleta City Council unanimously agreed to set aside $100,000 toward immigrant support services and legal assistance for families separated by deportations.
Goleta Councilmember Luz Reyes-Martín, herself an immigrant whose grandfather arrived in the country through the Bracero Farmworker Program, fought back tears as she described the recent operations seen in Santa Barbara County, from the videos of workers chased down and tackled to the stories of children crying after being left without their parents.
“It’s been a really heavy and kind of emotional couple of months,” Reyes-Martín said.