Community Organizers React to Recent ICE Activity

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – Local community organizers want people to know about recent immigration enforcement in the Santa Barbara area.

They have posted videos to social media.

Chelsea Lancaster said non-profits have confirmed that local residents have been taken off the streets.

Lancaster and other immigration activists calls them "kidnappings."

"We have at least 5 confirmed kidnappings, maybe up to 10, one vehicle they smashed their window. It has been a really common tactic. We know people have the right to not open their door and roll down their windows, so ICE just smashes their window and then snatches people violently out of their vehicles, away from their families, away from their community and they just leave that vehicle in the middle of the street," said Lancaster.

In one instance, Lancaster said masked men broke a car window on Hutash St. off Salinas on Santa Barbara's Eastside.

Shattered glass looked like it had been swept to the curb along the street.

She said one person detained by ICE agents ended up in the hospital closest to the U.S. Customs Services office on Cortez Cir. in Camarillo.

"We had a kidnapping on Sunday in Santa Barbara, which I don't think we have had a Sunday kidnapping, the Lord's day, in a very long time, if ever, that person was kidnapped and they ended up in St. John's Hospital in Camarillo and one of our coalition members went down and held a vigil at the hospital," said Lancaster.

On Tuesday evening neighbors could be seen passing out information flyer and 'Know Your Rights' cards.

Hilary Licht who lives on the eastside said this is the second time she has seen a car left behind – blocking traffic and shattered glass.

"This is unfortunately the second time I have seen exactly the same thing in exactly the same location, the car was in this case the passenger window smashed in and then a car what is immobile because the keys are with the driver," said Licht.

"All of our community members that are out here trying to resist ICE terror we are really trying to put together a call to action that this is happening in our own backyard," said Lancaster.

Organizations helping immigrant families are planning an emergency meeting on Wednesday at an undisclosed location.

When asked if the people taken into custody had criminal records, Lancaster said 70 percent of them don't even have traffic tickets.

But the website says enforcement operations are highly targeted and they use the word 'arrest.'

She also said some of the people taken have been talked into signing deportation papers for the benefit of their remaining family members in the United States.

Many families have citizens and undocumented members.

Lancaster said her mother became a citizen when she was growing up.

That inspired her to look out for community members who she said are being racially profiled.

Tuesday is National Immigrants Day.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed the day to coincide with the anniversary of the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty.

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