More than 2,000 people lined the sidewalks of upper State Street on Saturday in the latest local protest against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Trump administration.
The demonstration was hosted by Indivisible Santa Barbara, which hosts weekly protests against the Trump administration. Saturday’s event was part of a nationwide weekend of action against ICE, with more than 1,000 protests held across the country. The Santa Barbara protest saw exceptional turnout, with participants galvanized by the January 7 murder of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.
“Her last words were like, ‘I’m not mad at you.’ And he just shot her,” said Lukas Schwirner, a Santa Barbara resident. “Our administration allows those kinds of people into positions of power and supports them, without any input from us, from the people …. Instead, [Trump will] just do whatever he wants. He’s the king, and he’ll let maniacs with guns kidnap and deport people, I guess.”
