An immigrant rights group is reporting an unprecedented level of daily arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Central Coast region.
Claudia Gonzalez is the communications and media organizer for the group 805 UndocuFund. She says the current spike of ICE detainments on the Central Coast started over the weekend.
By Tuesday, 97 people had been detained by ICE, according to reports by families and 805 UndocuFund volunteers. Seven of those were reported in San Luis Obispo.
“This is definitely a surge,” Gonzalez said. “We've definitely seen the increase this year [during the] current administration, but nothing like the past three, four days.”
Activist groups SB Resiste and Carp Sin Fronteras have also reported a spike in arrests, according to the Santa Barbara Independent.
Gonzalez says according to 805 UndocuFund reports, ICE has been most active in the Santa Maria area.
“We would definitely say that it's a coordinated assault on our immigrant and indigenous communities across the central coast,” Gonzalez told KCBX.
Neither ICE nor the U.S. Department of Homeland Security responded to KCBX for this story.
