{"id":118274,"date":"2026-01-03T03:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T03:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/118274\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T03:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T03:42:10","slug":"more-than-100-detained-in-central-coast-holiday-immigration-raids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/118274\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 100 detained in Central Coast holiday immigration raids"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A year-end wave of immigration raids in the Central Coast led to the apprehension of 147 people, sparking outrage from elected officials and immigrant-rights groups.<\/p>\n

Federal immigration agents took people from their homes, job sites, businesses and on the streets as they ran errands, Santa Maria City Councilmember Gloria Soto said during a Friday morning news conference. She said at least 87 people were taken by agents in her town from Saturday through Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis makes Santa Maria the epicenter of what we have been seeing over the holiday break,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s devastating because this is happening during the holiday season when people are supposed to be with their loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security could not immediately be reached for comment Friday. <\/p>\n

The operations, Soto said, have brought terror to her community and destabilized the local economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren are returning home to empty houses, [elderly people] are starting to isolate themselves and workers are staying home out of fear,\u201d she said. \u201cWe cannot live in terror.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Santa <\/p>\n

Santa Maria City Councilmember Gloria Soto.<\/p>\n

(City of Santa Maria)<\/p>\n

Primitiva Hern\u00e1ndez \u2014 executive director of 805 UndocuFund,<\/a> a nonprofit leading the Rapid Response Network that documents immigration sweeps in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties \u2014 said the operations were mostly carried out in working-class towns with predominantly Latino populations. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are witnessing is the indiscriminate racial profiling of communities of color,\u201d she said. \u201cFamilies are being ripped apart, workers are disappearing from job sites, and fear is being used as a weapon. The harm will have devastating consequences for people\u2019s well-being and for the economic stability of our region and we must take action today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez said the operations began on Saturday when 38 people were detained \u2014 36 in Santa Maria and two in San Luis Obispo. The following day, 15 people in Lompoc, eight in Santa Maria and two in Santa Barbara were taken. Officials said the number of people detained seemed to have peaked on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

In a phone interview, Soto said she held the news conference outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Santa Maria for a few reasons: to demand greater transparency from federal immigration authorities amid reports of due process violations and mistreatment of immigrants, to give stage presence to immigrant-rights groups and to put pressure on her City Council colleagues to take action.<\/p>\n

At the conference, immigrant-rights advocates read the testimonial of a father whose entire family \u2014 save his 3-year-old U.S.-born son \u2014 was taken by ICE. He said he has received calls from federal immigration agents telling him they know where he lives and that they were coming for his son.<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez said the 805 Rapid Response Network uses a real-time alert system to send out texts with verified information about sweeps and other crucial information. But it comes at a price \u2014 each text alert costs about $600, and the nonprofit has already spent more than $8 million, making donations and community support vital.<\/p>\n

Soto said she hoped Friday\u2019s news conference would put pressure on her Santa Maria City Council colleagues who \u201care not wanting to take any action when it comes to ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this fall, she said, she called for the creation of an ad hoc committee that could serve as a bridge between the council and residents. The committee could help document how the raids are impacting people but also identify policies that could help support immigrants.<\/p>\n

But she said her council colleagues did not want to address the issue until February. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe communities that are being terrorized don\u2019t have the time for legislative bodies to be waiting around,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have to take action now.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A year-end wave of immigration raids in the Central Coast led to the apprehension of 147 people, sparking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[62720,7,9,8,62723,179,8684,62724,62725,7529,6843,592,62721,5079,5875,34696,62722,40264],"class_list":["post-118274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-action-today","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-city-council-colleague","tag-community","tag-federal-immigration-agent","tag-immigrant-rights-group","tag-job-site","tag-news-conference","tag-operation","tag-people","tag-primitiva-hernandez","tag-san-luis-obispo","tag-santa-barbara","tag-santa-maria","tag-soto","tag-town"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}