Why should the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors get involved with the actions of ICE agents in our community? Do they have the authority? Is it necessary?
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agencies enforce immigration laws and executive orders. Their interactions with county residents are law enforcement measures. County supervisors control the budget of the Sheriff’s Office and have a legal interest in its workings and its officers’ conduct. They also have authority over the use of county property and, most importantly, are tasked with promoting the well-being of county residents.
How to balance those responsibilities against the need for legitimate immigration enforcement is not clear-cut. The U.S. immigration system is broken, the result of years of partisan bickering and power plays on all sides. Criticizing this dysfunctional system and the ways its rules are enforced does not mean supporting unlimited immigration. Most U.S. residents and both major political parties agree the U.S. has the right to control who enters its borders.
There is disagreement about immigration rules and how they are enforced. However, January 2026 polls indicate that currently between 61 and 63 percent of the American public oppose aggressive, violent ICE tactics, including those who voted for the current administration and its immigration policies. Believing that ICE is out of control is not a radical, minority position.
Why declare San Luis Obispo an ICE-free zone?
A board declaration would be symbolic—it isn’t legally enforceable. But symbols are powerful. They are public representations of our values—indicating who we are as a people, and what we believe and hope to act on. For example, the U.S. Declaration of Independence is symbolic.
Declarations don’t need to be legally enforceable to be effective. They give legitimacy and direction to people and organizations that wish to act. If SLO county is declared an ICE-free zone, more individuals, churches, schools, businesses, and neighborhoods are likely to follow suit—perhaps put a sign in their window, bar ICE agents without a judicial warrant from private property, organize to protect their neighbors, monitor and report illegal activities, etc.
These acts of resistance wouldn’t be necessary if ICE and CBP officers acted professionally and were schooled in the rights of the people they serve:
• If their recruiting followed standard professional methods for weeding out those who are aggressive by nature or sadistic, have criminal backgrounds or psychological problems;
• If their training included deescalation techniques, peaceful conflict resolution, and specific schooling on how to deal with protesters nonviolently and consistent with their rights;
• If their process of enforcement followed expected professional practice—no masks, visible badges and other indicators of status and organization, full personal identification, production of appropriate warrants, no racial profiling, and respect for personal property and homes;
• If they understood the impact and appropriate use of both lethal and nonlethal weapons;
• If officers involved in a shooting were identified publicly and put on leave, their conduct investigated locally and with independence, and the results shared with the public; and
• If the agencies and their field officers felt accountable to the public they serve.
Yet every day there is ever more distressing evidence that ICE and CBP agents are acting unprofessionally—endangering the safety of the community, causing fear, modeling bad policing, damaging the morale of departments and their officers who do adhere to professional standards, and eroding public trust in law enforcement.
So why don’t these immigration enforcement agencies properly recruit and train their officers before putting them in the field? Both have billions of dollars available to them and many effective training models to follow.
Their actions indicate these agencies don’t see effective, professional enforcement of immigration laws as their mission. Instead, immigration enforcement is the pretext for rash actions, shows of force, dominance, deliberate cruelty, and retribution. Theirs is the face of tyranny—they are the enforcement arms of a lawless federal government.
The progenitor of all U.S. laws is the Constitution. The federal government should only exercise its sovereignty over state and local authorities if its actions are constitutional. If they are not, it is our duty as citizens to resist—to protect ourselves and each other. As military personnel can refuse illegal orders, so can the rest of us.
I recently saw the movie Nuremberg—a dramatic reenactment of the post-WWII Allied Forces trial of Nazis for alleged war crimes. The lead character is an American military psychologist commanded to analyze the psyche of accused Nazi second-in-command Hermann Göring so prosecutors could win the case against him. The psychologist finds Göring’s weak spot, and the Allies are successful. But when he subsequently writes a book about his involvement and what he learned, he insistently warns his readers that fascism could also happen in the U.S. and faulted the German people for not resisting the evil of Nazism soon enough.
Let’s not make the same mistake. ∆
Linda M. Baker is a lead with Indivisible Rapid Response Team SLO. Send a response for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 5, 2026.
The 2024 election showed that the majority of people in the country want our borders secured and our immigration laws enforced, even if you object. If you are uphappy with the way that ICE controls the well-planned rioting occurring in response to its operations, perhaps you shouldn’t have supported the sanctuary laws which prevent local police from doing their jobs and controlling the riots.
Blah, blah, blah. At least you left out the “sane and responsible people” part. Obama deported over three million illegals, 90% of which were violent criminals, without this chaos in our streets. ICE agents did not wear masks and did not frog march innocent old men in their underwear through the snow. DHS’s own records indicate that only about half of the people they have detained in these raids have any criminal record. These folks only offense was to come to America where they hoped their lives would be better.
If we passed an immigration reform law—you remember laws, right—we could sort these folks out and deport those that have committed crimes and give law abiding immigrants a path to citizenship. More and more, my instincts are that these ICE maneuvers are more about making folks afraid to speak out so that in November these goons will be hanging around polling places and in vote counting facilities “monitoring” the count. Trump’s feds are currently attempting to seize voter rolls in the states to purge those lists of Democratic voters.
All the while, Mr. Trump runs the first, fourth and tenth amendments to the Constitution through the paper shredder as he hangs pictures of Vladimir Putin in the White House.
Not surprisingly, when a Democrat like Obama deported people, none of the usual lefty activists rioted and tried to block enforcement. This “chaos” is just politics and the Democrat’s attempt to whip up their listless party to resist Trump.
I’m guessing you also thought it was “just politics” when Patrick Henry spoke up in the Virginia House of Burgesses or when Congress passed the 14th amendment or when MLK led the March on Washington. Americans like you were against those things as well.
Admittedly, emotionally driven oratory and rhetoric can be very effective to whip a crowd into action, sometimes for positive change like civil rights. Other times, the direction of the emotionally-driven crowd is not so positive, like a lynch mob or the internment of the Japanese in WWII by liberal icon FDR. I think that the current rioting incited by Democratic leaders will not be viewed favorably by historians.
Without false premises, distortions AND lies, what would the right wing EVER have?
The response from the political left to President Barack Obama’s deportation policies was characterized by deep disappointment, outrage, and intense criticism from immigration activists, labor unions, and progressive advocates, who labeled him the “Deporter-in-Chief”.
AI
Key Left-Wing Criticisms and Responses:
“Deporter-in-Chief” Label: Despite promises of immigration reform, the Obama administration deported over 2 million people between 2009 and 2015, more than any other president in American history at that time.
Lack of Due Process: Organizations like the ACLU and the AFL-CIO condemned the reliance on “summary removals”—expedited deportations that bypass immigration courts, denying individuals a hearing or counsel.
“Secure Communities” Program: Progressive groups heavily criticized the “Secure Communities” program, which involved local law enforcement in immigration enforcement, leading to the deportation of many with no criminal records.
Protests and Activism: Immigrant rights activists frequently heckled Obama during speeches, demanding he halt deportations, leading to public confrontations where he was accused of tearing families apart.
Nuance in the Response:
While progressives largely condemned the high volume of removals, some acknowledged the administration’s pivot toward targeting criminals rather than families later in his second term. However, the overarching view from the left was that the administration failed to prioritize human rights in its enforcement actions.
Yeah, how many people were shot by ICE under Obama?
There have been at least 30 shootings by immigration agents since January 20, 2025, resulting in 8 deaths
2025 was ICE’s deadliest year in two decades. Here are the 32 people who died in custody
FIFTY SIX DIED UNDER OBAMA’S EIGHT YEARS
It is all politically contrived performative outrage by the Democrats, looking for a way to whip up enthusiasm in their membership. I don’t recall any rioting during Obama’s term. Nobody would have been shot if leftists had not rioted, and if local police had done their job and protected the federal officers.
John, simply because YOU don’t “remember” doesn’t mean it didn’t happen AS I POINTED OUT
RIOTS? LMAOROG
A Minnesota judge who clerked for the revered conservative jurist Justice Antonin G. Scalia wrote in an opinion that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had violated nearly 100 court orders during its immigration crackdown in the state.
Another judge has written that immigration authorities are violating the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirements in a ruling that slammed “the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas.”
A third judge chose to retire so he could speak more freely about what he called an “existential threat to democracy.”
Administration officials have maintained that it is “activist judges” who are at fault for issuing rulings that they say are motivated by an anti-Trump political agenda.
Protests were frequent during the Obama administration, with a significant increase in demonstrations near the White House, particularly in Lafayette Park during his first six months, where 55 permits were issued. Early protests ranged from immigration reform rallies to conservative tea party demonstrations against health care, reflecting deep political polarization.
Key details regarding Obama-era protests include:
White House Activity: The area around the White House saw a dramatic increase in protests, with demonstrations regarding the Tamil Tigers, immigration, and various policies.
Immigration Rallies: Activists frequently protested against the administration’s high rates of deportations, with large rallies in Los Angeles and civil disobedience in Washington, D.C., and other cities.
Ideological Opposition: Right-wing marchers and groups opposing “big government” and health care reform held major rallies in Washington.
Social Justice Movements: Protests following the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012 sparked nationwide movements for racial justice.
Nah, Cheeto got less than 50% of the popular vote, the last one before him was Dubya in 2000
The people want LAW AND ORDER, sanctuary laws don’t stop the FEDERAL AGENTS whose job it is to do immigration. Riots huh? Like Jan 06? The 1,600 people Cheeto pardoned?
Pretty simple. immigration reform was stopped by Cheeto so he could do a performance for his base. Many green card or asylum seekers, both LEGAL, have been rounded up
48,377 out of 65,735—or 73.6% held in ICE detention have no criminal conviction according to data current as of November 30, 2025. Many of those convicted committed only minor offenses, including traffic violations.
Dangerous? lol
Biden’s “immigration reform” would have admitted 5,000 illegal per day (1,825,000 per year). That was not “reform”, that was surrender. And, unlike Biden’s claim that he was helpless to do anything about runnaway illegal border crossings, he managed to largely stop them by Executive Order just before the election, when it became apparent that it was costing him politically. He could have stopped them at any time.
Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, far from a progressive or even a moderate, said this about the 2020 immigration reform law:
“It’s not that the first 5,000 migrants encountered at the border are released, that’s ridiculous. The first 5,000 we detain, we screen and then we deport. If we get above 5,000, we just detain and deport.”
They would be released into the country during the years that their deportation and frivolous asylum proceedings took, and given work permits. Once their final order of deportation was finally made, they would disappear into the country. This is what occurred with many of the illegals being arrested currently. And, again, Biden could have always just turned them away, like he did shortly before the election when he saw illegal immigration was costing him votes.
AS Mr Smith pointed out below, BS
Key details of Lankford’s 2024 immigration reform efforts included:
Border Shutdown Authority: Empowering the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to shut down the border if average daily crossings surpass 5,000 over a week, or immediately if 8,500 people cross in a single day.
Asylum Law Overhaul: Raising the credible fear standard for asylum seekers, restricting parole authority, and speeding up processing, with most cases decided within months instead of years.
Increased Resources: Providing roughly $20 billion to build the border wall, hire 4,300 asylum officers, and add 100 immigration judges.
Ending Catch and Release: Expanding detention capacity to 50,000 beds to ensure single adults remain in custody during their expedited proceedings.
MOST CRITICALLY THINKING ADULTS UNDERSTAND CHEETO IS ONLY ABOUT PUTTING ON A “SHOW”, THE CRUELTY IS THE POINT
I’d be curious to which federal agency the public would be willing to not protest? The public never thinks FEMA is doing enough. They hate the IRS and leftists hate our armed forces. I could have sworn there was a separation of powers, a supremacy clause, and a clearly explained power of the federal government to manage and or intervene in certain activities at the state level. The public hates the Feds, but what if New Hampshire decided to send an army or navy over to attack San Pedro? The public would be screaming for the federal government to intervene.
Its like the police or lawyers, everyone hates them until they need one. Our country is just going to disintegrate while we bicker about identity politics and our enemies sharpen their knives. The first sign will be when we, like the Soviet Union, start selling off what few assets remain (land) to China and remove labor laws that protect American workers from working in sweatshop like conditions. After that will be capital controls and the rise of the mafia and paramilitary organizations beating the crapp out of dissidents and intellectuals. The goal is to create a compliant population and Morlock like class of slaves. HG Wells and George Orwell saw this coming decades ago. Americans will have forgotten what it means to be free and will instead define it by having a state issued ration card. “Oh say can you see…by the dawn’s early light…what so proudly we hailed …”