The last few days of 2025 were very different than the rest of the year when it came to immigration enforcement on the Central Coast.
An estimated 147 arrests were made in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties over a four-day period at the end of December, according to 805 UndocuFund Executive Director Primitiva Hernandez, including at least 87 in the city of Santa Maria, 12 in Paso Robles, 10 in San Miguel, and nine in San Luis Obispo. Immigration arrests have become a near daily occurrence across the area that 805 UndocuFund covers, Hernandez said on Jan. 5, adding that she received a report that someone was arrested in Santa Maria that day.
But what happened between Dec. 27 and 30 was outside the norm.
“If this is how 2025 came to a close, what can [the Central Coast] expect in 2026?” Hernandez said. “This is what we witnessed at the end of 2025, compared to what is typical in prior years. That should be alarming.”
Her organization receives reports of immigration arrests across the Tri-County area through the 805 Immigrant Rapid Response Network, a community-led initiative that aims to provide support and resources to undocumented individuals and families. When the network receives a report or phone call about an arrest, volunteers respond to the scene and reach out to the family.
“The number that we’re reporting on, our data, comes from confirmed and documented apprehensions. They are confirmed by our volunteers on the ground,” Hernandez said. “They are reported to the hotline, and we confirm with their family members.”
She called Santa Maria the epicenter of the recent wave of enforcement and pointed to San Miguel as an example of what SLO County residents should be concerned about. Having 10 people taken from such a small population in such a short period of time, “that should be alarming in and of itself.”
“San Miguel is a very small city that’s living in fear because they don’t know that at any moment their city might be targeted again,” she said.
Her group joined other advocacy organizations and local elected officials to draw attention to the issue with a press conference on Jan. 2 outside the ICE facility in Santa Maria.
Primitiva told New Times that the number of arrests reported to 805 UndocuFund reflects a minimum.
“We know that the number is higher. Not 100 percent of the apprehensions that are being reported in the region are reported to the hotline,” she said.
New Times reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and was directed to a press release posted on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website.
ICE reported arresting 118 “illegal aliens” in Santa Barbara and SLO counties between Dec. 26 and 31.
“ICE ended 2025 with a surge operation in California targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in the release. “In 2026, our law enforcement will continue to do what Gavin Newsom refused to do: make California safe again.”
The release detailed 11 of the arrests, including their names, photos, ages, and the crimes they were convicted of. DHS called them the “worst of the worst” arrested during the time period. Their crimes include DUIs, lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14, assault, and burglary.
Hernandez said that nationally, about 30 percent of those arrested as part of immigration enforcement operations have a criminal record, most of which are minor offenses like traffic violations. More than 70 percent of those being detained, she said, have no criminal record.
“Some of the patterns that we’ve documented, it’s reflective of systemic racial profiling,” she said. “The majority of the people were farmworkers, migrant, indigenous from the Mixtec, Zapotec, and other Indigenous peoples, so people who are very, very vulnerable. … Very, very prone to abuses of power.”
During the Jan. 6 SLO County Board of Supervisors meeting, several residents voiced their concerns about the recent surge in ICE enforcement, calling on the board to take stronger action to protect the community.
“Families have been broken,” resident Rick Rieser said. “What the Board of Supervisors can do is follow the lead of other communities … and declare ICE free zones … and end ICE cooperation from the sheriff. We are on a downward trajectory, and you have the power to do something to change it.” ∆
This article appears in Volunteers 2026.