The term “law and order” got tossed around a fair amount during the county supervisors’ special hearing this Tuesday. Under discussion was how to best stand up to ICE enforcement actions now taking place throughout Santa Barbara County. Acknowledging the lack of clarity as to what legal authority their actions would actually carry, or even how their resolutions could be enforced, the supervisors nevertheless agreed that ICE’s conduct in the county bore little resemblance to “law and order.” ICE agents have reportedly arrested 1,897 suspected unlawful immigrants in the 805 area code this year.
Supervisor Roy Lee, an immigrant who moved here from Taiwan with his parents, co-authored the three-part measure along with Supervisor Laura Capps. “My mom and dad walk down the street with their U.S. papers all the time now,” he stated. “They are terrified that ICE will pick them up and I won’t know where they are. I support law and order, but with ICE, what we see is not law and order. It’s chaos. Pure chaos.”
On paper, the supervisors voted 4-1 to ban ICE agents from using county public spaces to launch unauthorized enforcement actions. They voted unanimously to have county election officers craft a plan of response should ICE agents seek to disrupt the upcoming elections this June and November. And they voted 4-1 to instruct county planning staff to explore all available avenues to prevent ICE from opening new detention facilities on property under county jurisdiction. Supervisor Bob Nelson cast the sole dissenting votes.