A City Council discussion about the city’s response to federal immigration enforcement — which included a statement from Santa Barbara Police Chief Kelly Gordon reaffirming the department’s priority for community policing — also served to highlight how the presence of aggressive ICE enforcement in Santa Barbara has eroded the trust between police, city officials, and the community.
A report prepared by the city administrator’s office for Tuesday’s hearing said federal immigration enforcement has caused “significant disruption” in the city, and ICE detainment of community members in public spaces, at businesses, and near schools has created a sense of “instability, chaos, and fear.”
In the past six weeks, there have been multiple instances of ICE officers pepper-spraying and physically pushing community members who showed up to document immigration enforcement activity…