A protest was held to bring attention to arrests by ICE at the San Luis Obispo County Jail at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
People attending the meeting held signs that represented each date someone was arrested at the jail by federal immigration enforcement, according to numbers compiled by activists from eye witness accounts.
Organizer Susan Mackey said by her math, the number adds up to 79 people.
The signs were a way to represent each person without divulging their names, she said.
“We were trying to think of a way to just show the human toll,” Mackey told KCBX. “So we sat down and for the first time really counted up the people for this calendar year that have been taken from the jail.”
Mackey said the action was an attempt to tell the board that “despite their resolutions, despite what they have attempted to do, that it is still happening.”
In June, the board passed a resolution that limits ICE’s access to county-owned property, but contains a caveat that still allows federal agents to access the jail in many cases.
During the public comment period, Dr. Cindy Lewis with Indivisible North SLO County said there’s effectively two different justice systems: one for citizens, and another for non-citizens.
“SLO County has facilitated abductions of at least 79,” Lewis said. “It was 77 on Monday, we had to change our sign to make it 79.”
Lewis asked the board to create a citizen oversight committee.
The Sheriff’s Office has self-reported that they handed 39 people over to ICE in 2026.
That number only counts inmates the Sheriff’s Office believes qualified for a transfer because of their criminal history, according to an exception in state law.
In addition to the county-facilitated transfers, ICE also arrests people without any convictions as they’re leaving the jail, according to ICE data sets obtained by the Deportation Data Project.
