Anti-I.C.E. Activists: Ignorant or Stupid?
By Denice Spangler Adams
Your safety is at risk. Taxpayers fund the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s office to not enforce CA State laws, or comply with federal law, despite taking the Oath of Office to uphold them.
On Tuesday 5/6/2025, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors held its annual hearing on I.C.E. Protestors from IndivisibleSB, La Casa de La Raza, and other non-profits lined the streets demanding I.C.E. be banned from the county. The Chamber was filled to capacity with standing room only inside and the adjacent foyer.
For the unfamiliar, Immigration Customs, and Enforcement (I.C.E. ) was created in 2003 after the 9/11 attacks to increase national security and safety. Hailed as the biggest overhaul since creation of the Department of Defense.
Reporting on the hearing by local media was incomplete, failing to report on 1) the narrow focus of the hearing, 2) public comment on reasons to cooperate with I.C.E., and 3) the actual Sheriff’s policy versus practices.
The introductory presentation by Board of Supervisor (BOS) Undersheriff Craig Bonner began with, “I want to make it clear to everyone: The Sheriff’s Office and other local law enforcement agencies do not enforce federal immigration laws.” His boss, voter-elected Sheriff Bill Brown, was not present.
Following Bonner’s brief update, Supervisors Roy Lee and Steve Lavagnino asked spot-on questions. Why isn’t I.C.E. here? Why now is this an issue? without clarification of “this.” Regardless, the BOS voted the usual 5-0 as one united group to accept Bonner’s flawed, incomplete report.
Duty or Obligation
The hearing’s narrow focus was on 17 jailed alien migrant felons or as Superintendent Lavagnino speculated .00000001% of the County’s jailed population.
The Transparency and Responsibility Using State Tools Act, referred to as the CA Trust Act became effective in 2017.
The act requires the Sheriff to notify I.C.E. when a felon is released. Our Sheriff’s undisclosed policy is not to always notify I.C.E. Another mandate is that I.C.E. Agents must be at the jail door at the time of the alien felon’s release to facilitate a re-arrest. Otherwise, the convicted migrant felon goes free.
Bonner chose to evade Lavagnino’s inquiry by not communicating to him that the Sheriff’s practice is to not notify I.C.E., making it impossible for I.C.E. to be present to re-arrest. This was nothing new, but apparently was unknown by every Supervisor, who along with the Sheriff, took an oath to uphold the law including the U.S. Constitution. Reminder: Each is an elected, autonomous public official held accountable only by voters.
Looking around the room, packed with arm-waving I.C.E. haters, I wondered if these folks were ignorant or just plain stupid. It’s already known they are loyalists who sheepishly follow orders or invites to protest most anything in their collective effort to intimidate.
It’s a social gathering of sorts.
A Consequence of Alien Felon Release
Let’s revisit 10 years ago, 2015, when veteran Vandenberg worker 64-year-old Marilyn Pharish returned to her Lompoc home from work to be attacked at her door by two alien felons who’d been recently released. She was brutally raped, hammered, strangled, and left for dead. Tragically she survived just eight days after being found and hospitalized.
I related as a 62-year-old at the time.
As a Director of Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) we held a joint hearing in Santa Maria with four I.C.E. agents, Sheriff Brown, and his then Deputy Barney Milikian, later interim SBPD Chief. Hundreds of SEIU workers and others protested en masse. The hearing room packed with overflow outside chanting.
Next to Sheriff Brown, I sat in the front row to observe Millikan chicken count to poll the number against I.C.E. I heard directly our Sheriff admit that he had not and does not notify I.C.E. of release and had never unlocked or used the tax-paid I.C.E. interrogation room. He had no regrets. His legacy is being the only person in CA history to be head of both the CA Police and Sheriff’s Associations; to be responsive to “community” desires — protection of migrant aliens plus convicted felons— not necessarily citizen safety. Voters support this position every re-election.
Que sera, sera.
I consistently go to hearings to remind elected leaders of the consequences of their decisions from Marilyn to the many Angel Moms I’ve met over the decades. The walls of a Houston building are lined with photos of their children murdered by alien migrants unlawfully in our country, leaving a forever impact on me.
Carry On As Usual
Eight years later, this hearing on our Sheriff’s cooperation with I.C.E. was in South County Santa Barbara, a different demographic than in North County, however, the demands by attendees were the same: do not cooperate!
The BOS Chamber was packed with white, non-Hispanic, 65+ year old elderly women — all about murdered Marilyn’s age or older — demanding the ouster of I.C.E., and freedom for convicted felons to act again rather than be deported.
They’re groupies.
The BOS has no authority over the Sheriff, other than to withhold funding. Thus the status quo in Santa Barbara will be maintained: No Cooperation with I.C.E.
Old women like me are on our own.
Courageous or Foolish
I was the second of 47 public comment speakers, after three Zoom calls were taken first by a masked, inaudible County worker (Why masked?).
My position is it’s the duty and obligation of the Sheriff to notify I.C.E. of the date and exact time of a convicted alien migrant’s release.
Period.
Citizens, immigrants, our County’s guests, which includes all visa holders, must be prioritized. There are 10 categories of work visas, plus one for visiting foreign students and victims requiring emergency amnesty. Alien migrants are not immigrants or guests. They are unlawfully within our borders.
As I exited in the foyer someone approached me saying, “You’re courageous, or a fool, for speaking, for putting a local face to supporting I.C.E.” Another added, “And for calling out the Sheriff.” One entered the elevator with me, sharing that she wanted to know more, writing down her contact info. Once outside, a sign-carrying man said, “Stay safe.”
What a messaging contradiction.
Take a look at COLAB’s latest video, “The Great Fee Heist”
The video link to the hearing should be sent directly to Tom Homan’s office. Let us not forget, “nobody is above the law”
There is no better example of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Our elected officials and the voters who elected them would rather release criminal aliens into the community than to hand them over to ICE, solely to thwart Trump’s agenda. While this amounts to societal self mutilation, in the mind of those in the grip of TDS it is preferable to abetting the orange devil. One so consumed with hatred that they would harm themselves under the assumption that the collateral harm to the enemy is greater is the useful idiot of the Democrat party. The Trump Deranged Idiot TDI is so blinded by hatred that the true agenda of the party is obscured. The goal is to destroy western society, Judaeo-Christian values, the middle class, capitalism, individual liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and more. Everything that makes America great, free and the envy of the world is under attack but the TDI cannot see it beyond the hate.