News of the Week
MARCH 27 - APRIL 3, 2014 PAU L WELLM AN
by KELSEY BRUGGER, TYLER HAYDEN, LYZ HOFFMAN, MATT KETTMANN, and NICK WELSH, with INDEPENDENT STAFF
santa maria
Approved Immigration Facility Disappointed Activists Believe Loss Will Spur Future Community Wins ICE COLD COLD: P Police li escorted t d JJorge M Manly-Gil l Gil outt off th the meeting ti after ft h he jjumped d up d during i an ICE representative’s t ti ’ speech h and d shouted h t d over him. The 1,400 people in attendance were otherwise calm, waving their hands in the air to agree with speakers and holding a rally outside during an intermission.
lthough last Thursday’s eighthour, 1,400-attendee Santa Maria City Council meeting resulted in a 3-2 vote to approve an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the town, those who have fought against the building maintain that although the approval was a negative, the possibility of the issue effecting change on the community in the future is a positive. “ICE may have won the battle, but we’re winning the war,” said Christina Fialho of Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC), which is now working with national leaders — including Congressmember Lois Capps, who sent letters to ICE in February and March asking that a final decision be delayed — on immigration reform measures. There may also be a lawsuit against the city, according to Gloria Acosta of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), which she said is meeting with attorneys to suss out what legal action,“even as light as a pin drop,” is possible. “It was a disappointment,” said Hazel PutneyDavalos of the vote. But as part of the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE), Putney-Davalos said that the community’s uproar is a catalyst for voter registration, especially since Councilmembers Jack Boysen and Willie Green, who voted in favor of the facility, are up for reelection in November. So far, CAUSE Action Fund has signed up 100 new voters in the past month and gathered another 3,000 signatures supporting district elections in the city. “We’re going to continue that work now with an even stronger motive,” she said. “At the least, the one positive we can pull out of this is that thousands of people in Santa Maria now know who the City Council is.” She said that the meeting’s strong turnout — coupled with 10
THE INDEPENDENT
april 3, 2014
the 5,000-person turnout at the February commission hearing — was “amazing” and could pave the way for “strong leaders” going forward. “We’re going to have so many people to make our job easier,” she said. Thursday’s meeting, which saw 1,200 people pack the city’s Fairpark Convention Center and 200 people congregate outside, included presentations from each of the four groups against the facility as well as an ICE representative and about 80 public speakers; during one of the breaks, hundreds of people rallied outside. Everything spoken in English was translated into Spanish, which city staff said was not legally required but was done as a courtesy. Several farmers let their workers off early that day to attend the afternoon meeting. The appellants — CIVIC, LULAC, homeowners, and former New Jersey State Police trooper Scott Fina — argued the building would be detrimental to residents’ health, safety, and the property values of their homes. Mayor Alice Patino and Councilmember Terri Zuniga were the only ones on the dais convinced. “Please do not tear our city apart,” Acosta said, who, along with several others, wore a shirt that read “Take Action – Vote” on the front and featured a César Chávez quote on the back.“We are all gathered together to say no to this,”Acosta continued.“Please, please listen to us.” To be located at West Century Street — and about a five-minute drive from the North County Jail, slated to open in 2018 — the 9,700-square-foot, one-story building would take over the duties performed since 1996 at the ICE facility in Lompoc. It would operate during normal business hours on weekdays and take custody of no more than 13 people in a 12-hour period; most detainees would then be driven to detention centers in Los Angeles. Despite residents’ fears, ICE officials have said repeatedly that the building’s presence wouldn’t
LAW & DISORDER
In response to a Grand Jury report criticizing the release of inmates at night on dark roads with no sidewalks when the buses had stopped running, the Sheriff’s Department is making changes at the County Jail, where an average of nine people are let go nightly. The law dictates that inmates must be released when their terms are up, even if it’s at midnight, but they are allowed to stay in the waiting room until sunrise. To make that more appealing, the jail is replacing the three hard-plastic seats with new furniture, and jail commanders are now working more cooperatively with a nonprofit organization that provides such inmates a free taxi service. Previously, the jail refused to screen such inmates for their ability to pay, which quickly sapped the nonprofit’s resources, but they will now only refer inmates with $30 or less. Two people were hit by trains on 3/30, according to the Santa Barbara Police Department. One person was sleeping near the tracks near Garden Street on Sunday morning and was clipped, only suffering an abrasion to his shoulder. The other person, Thomas Michael Drennan, 47, was pronounced dead at the scene in the Palermo/ Modoc area on Sunday afternoon; police have ruled that incident a suicide, based on a note found and witness statements.
Civil Rights in S.B.? On the same night as the Santa Maria ICE hearing, dozens of community activists — including members of the Coalition for Sustainable Communities, the Right to Write Campaign, the Young Survivors Support Network, CAUSE, and PODER (People Organizing for the Defense and Equal Rights of Santa Barbara Youth) — gathered at Casa de la Raza in Santa Barbara to talk about civilrights issues, from the ICE facility and new jail in Santa Maria to the City of Santa Barbara’s gang injunction. Noting that Santa Barbara has long been considered a progressive place, the event’s cohost Gaby Hernandez asked the audience, “How did it come to this? All three of these affect the Latino community more than anybody else.” Attendees were very critical of the gang injunction (which is set to go to trial on May 5) and expressed concern over the jail expansion in Santa Maria, and representatives of the Right to Write Campaign used the meeting to explain their opposition to the policy of only allowing postcards to be sent to inmates, due to concerns over contraband. At the end of the meeting, Hernandez said she was “really pleased by the collaboration,” and announced two forums — one on April 1 at the Franklin Neighborhood Center and the other on April 10 at Westside Community Center — to discuss the three topics in Spanish. “People’s basic human rights are ripped away, and we’re not going to accept it,” — Kelsey Brugger she pledged.
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BY LY Z H O F F M A N
news briefs
Raymond Morua (pictured) pleaded not guilty on 3/28 to second-degree murder, DUI vehicular manslaughter, and hit-and-run charges, but his attorney, Darryl Genis, said a plea deal with prosecutors is close because Morua “wants to take responsibility” for fatally hitting 27-year-old pedestrian Mallory Dies on December 6 and then fleeing the scene. Genis told Judge Thomas Adams that Morua doesn’t want to “renege” on his promise to accept responsibility but that additional details of the plea deal need to be finalized before the two sides can agree on it. Morua will be back in court on 4/15.
An ocean baptism at the Guadalupe Dunes went tragically awry on 3/30 when three people were swept away and only two made it back to shore. Reports of a body seen on Monday turned out to be an assortment of fishing buoys. The Coast Guard continued searching via helicopter and boat, along with a State Parks water rescue team. The missing man is reportedly Benito Flores, 43. Two horses died and six more suffered injuries as a result of a single-vehicle crash last week on Old San Marcos Road south of Highway 154. Driver Mathew Gillespie, a 54-year-old Arizona resident working for a professional horse transport company, was pulling a trailer of eight horses in a seven-horse-capacity trailer when he