‘The Fear Quotient Definitely Has Ratcheted Up’

As Alarm Spreads in Immigrant Communities, Sheriff Bill Brown Untangles Conflict Between California's 'Sanctuary State' Law and Trump's Push for Mass Deportations

Sheriff Bill Brown | Credit: Courtesy

This story first appeared at SB Newsmakers.

Sheriff Bill Brown says that the Trump Administration’s self-proclaimed “shock and awe” campaign targeting immigrants in the U.S. illegally is causing trepidation and dread among Latinos in Santa Barbara County.

“The fear quotient has definitely ratcheted up,” the sheriff told Newsmakers. “There’s no question about that.”

“And I’ve heard from representatives of the Hispanic community that there’s a lot of rumors that ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was seen, and vehicles were seen, and everything else … that there were raids and things that were happening and going on,” he added. “And most of it untrue.”

Brown’s comments, his most extensive statement to date about Trump’s crackdown, came during a one-on-one interview on Thursday.

First elected in 2006, the sheriff spoke in depth and detail about the swirling immigration controversy, and also discussed a host of more local issues, including considerable, measurable progress that has been made in dealing with the fentanyl crisis; the latest developments in the debate over providing mental health and medical treatment for inmates of the county jail; and his proposal to expand the Northern Branch jail, in part to deal with expected increased inmate populations, stemming from the November passage of Prop. 36, which raised sentences for certain felonies.

But it is the upheaval over immigration, triggered by a batch of Trump executive orders and endless frenzied rhetoric, that is the most urgent matter before him, with the new president expressing the desire that law enforcement at every level aid his promise to deport millions of immigrants.

In the interview, Brown described the roles and responsibilities of his office on immigration, emphasizing the crucial importance of the 2017 “California Values Act” — a k a “Sanctuary State” law. He also spoke about some of the challenges he faces in his high-profile, national position as president of the Major County Sheriff’s Association of America (MCSA).

“I am in particular, a little bit between a rock and a hard spot because of my MCSA presidency,” Brown said, “and we’re going into this new administration where we are just beginning to reach and out and establish some working relationships…. And then obviously the policy issues, the executive orders that have come out, there’s been just a flurry of things that have hit all at once.”

California vs. Trump. As a practical matter, the sheriff said, Trump’s new crackdown effort to date is “sort of a déjà vu,” a return to circumstances during his first term, when California and federal immigration authorities wrangled legally and politically over the state’s resistance to the Republican president’s policy wishes.

Amid a flurry of litigation, the Legislature passed, and then-Governor Jerry Brown signed, the aforementioned sanctuary state measure, which put strict limits on the communication and cooperation local law enforcement agencies in California can share with federal immigration officers.

That law, at least for now, is the primary platform for immigration policy for sheriff’s offices’ and other local police agencies, Brown said, and it limits cooperation except in cases involving criminals, in the country illegally, and guilty of serious felonies.

“Our role as local law enforcement officers is to provide protection and service to everyone in our community, and that includes people who are undocumented,” Brown said.

“And I’ve been very clear ever since I ran for sheriff that we do not engage in law enforcement that is enforcing federal immigration law, other than to the extent (now permitted by SB 54),” he said. “And we do that for a reason: It’s a community policing principle that we want people to call us if they’re a victim of a crime. We want them to call us if they witness a crime in progress.

“And if we have people who are afraid that they’re going to be deported or they’re going to be, their families are going to potentially be split apart, that doesn’t bode well for victims coming forward, domestic violence or other victims, and also for people who witness crimes reporting them,” the sheriff said.

What lies ahead. All that said, Brown acknowledged, things can, and likely will, change in coming days, weeks and months, as Trump’s well-planned strategy on immigration unfolds.

“It’s not to say that things won’t happen, but the reality is, ICE has said, and I believe it will be, that their priority is going to be criminal aliens — people who have come into the country illegally and, either have committed crimes previously in other countries, or have committed crimes here and have been convicted of them,” Brown told us.

“And I think they’ll be the first target to go after. I think what’s going to happen though, is … you will see some collateral arrests as well. They’ll be targeting one person. They come into a location and that person is in the company of five other people who are all undocumented, maybe not criminal in nature, but they’re here illegally and they may have been deported before and come back or whatever.

“Those people, I think, are going to be arrested also and taken in by ICE in those cases. So there will no doubt be some more people of that definition that are going to be arrested than have been in the last few years,” the sheriff said.