Immigration information detailed by Santa Barbara County officials
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Immigration issues brought out a standing room only crowd to a meeting at the Faulkner Gallery in the Santa Barbara library.
It shed some light on what information is available for the community, what enforcement is taking place and what services are available when it comes to immigration arrests.
Santa Barbara County Supervisor Laura Capps moderated the session put together by the League of Women Voters.
Several groups and government leaders who are working closely on immigration topics were present.
Capps opened by saying Santa Barbara is "a community of resilient people."
Santa Barbara County Undersheriff Craig Bonner said, "we recognize there is significant fear of deportation and family separation that some some of our folks in our community are feeling."
The Sheriff's department said right off the top it is not working with immigration enforcement teams in the area. "As local law enforcement we do not, not enforce federal immigration law." The crowd applauded that statement strongly.
This week there have been active immigration enforcements in the area according to Primitiva Hernandez with the 805UndocuFund. "We have already had three arrests since Sunday, we had two arrests this past Sunday and one yesterday in Santa Maria the two on Sunday were in Santa Barbara."
Some statistics were also presented, gathered as of December of last year, involving immigration contacts in the tri counties. For Santa Barbara County "out of those 2937 people a little more than 46 percent were without counsel, " said Julissa Pena with the SBC Immigrant Legal Defense Center.
The public defender's office also said those in the system taken by ICE can not meet their on going court obligations here. "So that means that people don't get their hearings, they don't get trials there are warrants that are out even though they are in communication with our office. They are trying to resolve things, " said Onyx Starrett a Santa Barbara County Deputy Public Defender.
There were also concerns about family members after an arrest. Pastor Leo Smith with the Eternal Life Organization said, "what do we have in place to sufficiently support the families left behind, housing? Those who had their sole bread winners taken what are we doing as a community?"
The Sheriff's department did remind those who need help from law enforcement regardless of immigration status to contact them. "We want to insure that those who are victims of crimes or witnesses to crimes, do not have fear of calling 911," said Bonner.
