San Luis Obispo County is split by disputes over whether Sheriff Ian Parkinson was truthful during the Jan. 27 TRUTH Act forum before the Board of Supervisors.
Under the annual requirement of the Transparent Review of Unjust Transfers and Holds (TRUTH) Act, Parkinson laid out the nature of interactions between his office and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
While 1st District Supervisor John Peschong deemed Parkinson’s presentation “very truthful,” “spot-on,” and “accurate,” scores of SLO County residents who gave public comment over four hours didn’t think so.
One of them was Grover Beach resident Johanna Rubba.
“I was happy to hear Sheriff Parkinson’s commitment to the letter of the law, but there was a way in which I found him approaching things from an odd angle,” she said. “For example, the Dec. 14 incident, it seemed to me that he was putting a lot of fault on the protesters but he didn’t seem to go beyond puzzlement as to the ICE agents’ penetration of the air-lock chamber or whatever you call it.”
The TRUTH Act meeting took place a month after a clash between protesters and ICE agents at the SLO County Jail when federal immigration officers arrived to detain an inmate on the verge of being released.
Since then, as the federal government amped up its immigration enforcement around the country, ICE agents fatally shot U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. While the White House and the Department of Homeland Security insisted that they were shot in self-defense, Good’s and Pretti’s killings have received widespread backlash and calls for criminal proceedings against the ICE agents.
In SLO County, hundreds gathered at the supervisors meeting to listen to Parkinson, spilling into two open overflow rooms. Some held signs honoring Good and Pretti, while a few others held images of masked ICE agents at the county jail.
At the questioning of 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson, Parkinson detailed the Dec. 14 incident, adding that it involved a two-door system called a sally port where both doors aren’t supposed to be open at the same time.
“ICE penetrated that outer door into the second door to arrest someone being released,” he said.
Parkinson told supervisors the jail’s video footage of the incident didn’t contain audio. He allegedly contacted ICE’s Santa Maria facility to question why the agents forced their way in and received a video with audio.
Parkinson said that ICE’s video showed protesters in the lobby and ICE standing near the exit where the inmates get released. When the door opened, the inmate came face to face with ICE, Parkinson said.
After some “dialogue,” according to the sheriff, the inmate retreated into the jail area, prompting ICE agents to follow. Sheriff’s deputies then intervened and took the individual back into custody.
On Dec. 17, 2025, the Sheriff’s Office posted ICE’s footage on Instagram. It showed protesters flipping off the camera and holding signboards criticizing ICE.
“This video is being shared to remind the public that this type of behavior is unacceptable and unlawful under Penal Code 602.1,” the Sheriff’s Office Instagram post read. “This law applies when a person intentionally interferes with lawful business conducted by employees of a public agency open to the public, including obstructing or intimidating employees, visitors, or members of the public.”
Gibson told Parkinson that it would have been better if the Sheriff’s Office posted its own video to address the incident, instead of using ICE’s video. He also noted that the Sheriff’s Office used language in the social media post admonishing the behavior of protesters.
The sheriff also shared ICE data during the forum.
Between September and December 2024, his office received 111 requests from ICE. The office released one inmate to ICE.
In 2025, the Sheriff’s Office received 287 requests from ICE. They honored 83 of those and released 69 people to ICE.
These requests include ones for detaining, notification, transfer, and interviews. According to the county staff report, the Sheriff’s Office only honored the requests when they met the legal criteria of state law, like convictions for a qualifying offense—consisting primarily of serious or violent felonies, or felonies punishable by imprisonment in state prison.
It’s unclear why Parkinson didn’t share data for the full 2024 calendar year. The Sheriff’s Office didn’t respond to New Times’ requests for comment by press time.
“To me, in 2024, it made zero sense to be turning people over even if they had a prior conviction because they’d turn around and come right back in,” Parkinson said. “Second problem was purely that ICE was nowhere to be found. To the most part, they were deployed down at the border and with their hands tied and doing almost zero enforcement.”
Forum attendee Elizabeth Cordoba told New Times she wasn’t reassured by Parkinson’s presentation.
She said she had “second-hand evidence that the Sheriff’s Office was releasing prisoners into the sally port room knowing fully well that on the other side of the door, ICE is waiting for them.”
Like many others, Cordoba was wearing orange clothing—honoring the efforts of immigration rapid response groups like 805 UndocuFund.
She said she wanted the supervisors to cut funding to the county jail to pressure the Sheriff’s Office to not work with ICE.
Other attendees, like 805 UndocuFund volunteers Frida and Logan Blackwell, think officials can enforce other actions.
“I want to see SLOPD actively start arresting ICE agents when they see them harming us,” Frida said. “I don’t think ICE-free zones are unconstitutional. Those who do not want to enforce them are unconstitutional.”
Many residents contacted supervisors and the District Attorney’s Office urging them to create ICE-free zones, which they say would prevent ICE from using county-owned property as staging areas/processing sites unless they have a federal judicial warrant.
A press release from the DA’s Office said such zones are “often symbolic” and they don’t override federal jurisdiction.
Supervisor Gibson told both New Times and his fellow supervisors that SLO County should explore the different efforts undertaken by other counties.
“I would note a couple things: the approach taken in different counties has been different, as some (Santa Clara, Alameda) have made policy statements and at least one other (San Mateo) has passed ordinance,” he told New Times via email. “Our DA’s comments about this are typical and expected: In trying to curry favor with his MAGA base, he has regularly dismissed and diminished efforts to support a robust local response. He is, as always, first and foremost a political partisan.”
Supervisor Peschong said at the meeting that his North County constituents support Parkinson’s efforts to navigate and comply with both federal and California law. He added that social services must be used to help the children of deported people.
“The people who have been picked up by [ICE] have been people that have had serious run-ins with law enforcement,” Peschong said. “They have left children behind. … These children are American citizens, they were born here. … I think we as a county need to figure out how to take care of those.”
In a 5-0 motion, supervisors agreed to form a subcommittee with 4th District Supervisor Jimmy Paulding and 3rd District Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg to investigate options for future actions, demand quarterly reports from the Sheriff’s Office open to the board and the public, and explore what health and social services can be given to families affected by immigration enforcement.
“We are a divided, polarized nation; we are a divided, polarized community,” Paulding said. “I was raised a conservative Christian Republican; I’m a Democrat now. I have values that represent this purple county; … I support law enforcement. I want us to work together. … I think we have some trust and relationship-building to get there.” ∆
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 5, 2026.
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