Ojai Valley News photos by Grant Phillips
A crowd gathers at the Ventura County Board of Supervisors meeting on Aug. 12 to discuss the recent immigration operations in Ventura County.
In response to a raft of immigration-related proposals at the Ventura County Board of Supervisors’ Aug. 12 meeting, including seeding a county Legal Immigration Fund with $250,000, 139 people signed up to speak at the meeting and more than 220 submitted written comments.
The 12-hour meeting is continued to Tuesday, Aug. 26, as there was not enough time for all the speakers to be heard, even with a shortened time of one minute and 30 seconds per comment. Those who did not get the opportunity to speak on agenda item No. 69 may return at 9 a.m. Aug. 26 to share their views with the supervisors at the county Government Center’s Hall of Administration at 800 S. Victoria Ave., Ventura.
The supervisors’ Aug. 12 agenda item No. 69 was to “receive and file” the presentations provided by various county officials and community organizations. To view the video of the meeting, visit:
The proposals by Ventura County Supervisor Vianey Lopez — adding up to an estimated $6,171,612 over three years — would:
• Establish a county Immigration Legal Defense Fund and approve $250,000 for the purpose of the fund.
• Hire seven new positions within the Public Defender’s Office Immigrant Defense Unit and approve an annual cost of approximately $1,294,612.
• Authorize and direct the county executive officer to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ventura County Office of Education to support a migrant education program in an amount not to exceed $1.9 million over a three-year term.
• Direct the county executive officer to establish policies, protocols and training for staff regarding federal immigration enforcement activities.
• Approve amendments to the county’s 2025-26 state and federal legislative agenda and platform regarding immigration and related community matters.
• Approve reallocating Supervisor Lopez’s recent salary increase to the Ventura County Immigration Legal Defense Fund.
A crowd as the Board of Supervisors meeting winds down on Aug. 12.
Lopez started the meeting by sharing the story of her father coming to the United States at 17 years old under the Bracero Program.
“Not knowing the process to get here, of how long it would take for our family to come together, to keep our family together, my father decided to bring me and my younger siblings, the younger ones, and cross the border, and I arrived here in the U.S., in Oxnard, at 4 years old,” Lopez said. “As an immigrant, I find it my responsibility and duty to at least bring this discussion to our Board to allow our community a space to share what has been happening to our undocumented and immigrant community members over the last couple of months, and to ensure that we recognize those immigrant community members and recognize that our country and our community and this county in particular heavily relies on immigrant labor and undocumented labor.”
Lopez referred to the July 10 immigration raids in Camarillo and Carpinteria, where 361 people were arrested, and where one worker, Jaime Alanis Garcia, 56, of Oxnard, died after falling off a roof during the raid of Glass House Farms in Camarillo.
“In one day, over 300 families were separated between Ventura County and Santa Barbara County,” Lopez said. “Doing nothing is not an option.”
The cost of the proposals for the 2025-26 Fiscal Year is estimated at $2,194,612.
Both the Public Defender positions and migrant education program would be funded through the 2028 Fiscal Year, requiring an additional $3,977,000.
“We have an opportunity to do something, and those are the recommendations that I have brought before you today,” Lopez said. “As an immigrant, I can’t sit back. Today, I ask for your compassion, for the recognition of all people here, and I ask that our Board be bold in supporting our community.”
Genevieve Flores-Haro, associate director of Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP) gives a presentation at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Aug. 12.
Immigration Legal Defense fund
The Ventura County Immigration Legal Defense Fund would support community-based organizations, providing legal, educational and outreach services to community members affected by federal immigration enforcement.
The cost is estimated at $250,000, and would include a grant program where qualified applicants would be selected by the county in consultation with the Public Defender’s Office.
“We’ve received reports that attorneys are continuing to exploit families that are impacted by these raids and trying to take money under false pretenses,” said Genevieve Flores-Haro, associate director of Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP), which has helped more than 50 people connect to legal resources in July alone.
Flores-Haro reported she is hearing reports from families being charged between $3,000 to $10,000 by some attorneys to do intakes or attend upcoming hearings.
According to a presentation by Flores-Haro, less than 40% of detained immigrants nationwide have legal counsel, and as of June, there are 4,042 people in Ventura County facing removal proceedings.
The establishment of the Legal Defense Fund requires a 4/5 vote by the supervisors, and funding for the program would come from the county’s General Fund.
Ventura County Public Defender Claudia Y. Bautista speaks before the Ventura County Supervisors on Aug. 12.
Public Defender positions
Seven fixed-term positions are being proposed for the Public Defender’s Immigrant Defense Unit, starting Aug. 17, continuing through June 30, 2028.
“An Immigrant Legal Defense Unit has been an essential function within our office since 2010,” said Ventura County Public Defender Claudia Y. Bautista. “We’re asking for an expansion of services that we already provide on a daily basis to our immigrant community.”
The annual cost for the positions is estimated at $1,294,612 for the current fiscal year. This amount would come from the county’s General Fund.
The seven positions, with maximum annual or hourly salary, includes a senior attorney at $223,254.47 annually; three attorneys at $196,156.29 annually (each); Community Services coordinator at $88,704.30 annually; Legal Processing assistant at $32.95 hourly; management assistant at $41.97 hourly.
“There is a handful of immigration attorneys in this county, two of them that practice competent immigration, two of them are embedded in my office,” Bautista said. “They receive trainings on a regular basis, they’re in connection with other offices over the state, they are familiar with the changing landscape of immigration. Only a handful of people can say that in this county.”
Several counties have established a similar Immigrant Defense Unit as part of the Public Defender’s Office, including Alameda, Contra Costa, San Diego and San Francisco.
“When we protect the vulnerable, we are investing in our own public safety,” Bautista said.
Since 2022, the Ventura County Public Defender’s Office has received a grant from the Board of State Community Corrections allowing the office to do post-conviction work to help with vacating convictions for those seeking a legal pathway to citizenship.
“When you make these adjustments, when you do post-conviction relief, when you give credible, trusted legal advice, it also reduces the tension and it may even bring relief to removal,” Bautista said. “I am a proud Ventura County civil service employee that is proud to be an immigrant, to have been born in Mexico, but to have served this community for 24 years,” Bautista said.
Ojai Valley News photo by Grant Phillips
Ventura County Superintendent of Schools César Morales speaks at the Aug. 12 Ventura County Board of Supervisors’ meeting about how federal immigration crackdowns are impacting county students and their families.
Migrant Education Program
The Migrant Education Program, currently funded by the federal government, provides tutors, programs, and support to California children as migrant parents move from job to job.
But the program is one of five that has had its federal funding withheld as of July by the Trump administration. It is proposed to be eliminated in next fiscal year’s federal budget, which has not yet been voted on by Congress.
According to the California Department of Education website, the county of Ventura was allocated $2,179,341 from the program for the 2024-25 fiscal year, but a complete disbursement of these funds has not yet occurred, according to Ventura County Office of Education Superintendent César Morales.
“I’ve made a decision that, regardless of that outcome, VCOE will figure out how to continue that program throughout the school year,” Morales said.
Funding for the program is based on the number of foster youth, English learners and low-income students enrolled.
Assemblymember Steve Bennett at the Ventura County Board of Supervisors meeting on Aug. 12.
Lopez proposes a Memorandum of Understanding between the county and the Ventura County Office of Education to provide up to $1.9 million over a three-year term to support the VCOE’s Migrant Education Program services, should federal funds be reduced or eliminated.
“That three years’ potential MOU will help us continue services to not just undocumented students and their families, many of which are documented and were born here, they are just farmworking families who work in our agriculture businesses or packinghouses who change domicile at least once in every three years,” Morales said. “We help provide programs on Saturdays so that their parents can work, and we continue to help them navigate the school system, provide tutoring, provide a college pathway, career pathways, so that they can become vital and contributing members of our beloved county.”
The cost of the three-year MOU would come from the county’s General Fund.
“The gesture of the approval of this item is just that, an initial gesture, because this conversation needs to continue,” Morales said. “In the next five years, we will lose over 20,000 students in our county. That represents $500 million out of the $3.2 billion in public education revenue. We will lose $500 million of that by 2031.”
Morales said more than 100 families have informed their school districts that they’ve self-deported as a result of the immigration operations.
“Your system, as well as the education system, sees children of immigrants at every single level of service, position, leadership position, and even on your dais,” Morales said. “And, yes, myself included, the son of immigrants, who is now the county superintendent of schools.”
Flores-Haro of MICOP said, “We had eight students at Oxnard Union impacted by the July 10 raid,” adding that in Oxnard School District, 57 families were impacted on that day alone. “We made sure that those families were connected, that they had someone to go home to, someone to pick them up when one or both parents were taken.”
Jennie Pittman, deputy director of the Ventura County Human Services Agency, addresses the Board of Supervisors at the Aug. 12 meeting.
New policies
Another proposal is to have county counsel work with the County Executive Office to prepare policies and protocols for staff regarding access to and use of county facilities by federal officials engaging in immigration enforcement.
Jennie Pittman, deputy director of the Ventura County Human Services Agency, said that, to date, there has been no Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity at any HSA offices or during field visits.
HSA provides services and support programs related to economic, social and health-related needs such as Medi-Cal enrollment assistance, child welfare services and emergency shelter placement.
Pittman said policies were first put in place in 2019 on how HSA handles any ICE activity.
The policies are “there to support our front-line staff and engage in management to help understand exactly what an officer may be asking for, whether any warrants have been presented,” Pittman said of the policies. “And then we would work with county counsel to understand the best next steps that would keep us within the law, while respecting a client’s confidentiality.”
The policies would establish additional training protocols for county staff, and add language to the county’s 2025-26 state and federal legislative agenda and platform, to ensure legislation and funding protect immigrants in Ventura County.
Pittman added HSA continues to operate its Farmworker Resource Program, which helps farmworkers with payroll questions and serves as a bridge between employers and employees.
Pittman assured parents who may be deported they have agency over what happens to their children. “Parents do have a legal right to make alternate arrangements for their children,” she said. “The homes of those relatives or family friends who step in to care for the minor children do not need to be approved by the Human Services Agency.”
Pittman said that if a child is left without care, the HSA can be contacted at: 805-654-3200.
Supervisor Vianey Lopez begins the meeting on the Aug. 12 by sharing her personal story of coming to Ventura County.
Supervisor Lopez’s salary
At its June 24 meeting, supervisors voted 3-2 in favor of increasing their own annual salaries by $24,472.70, with Supervisors Jeff Gorell and Lopez voting against the increase.
Lopez proposed her annual salary bump be moved to the General Fund, and allocated annually to the Immigration Legal Defense Fund.
The Board has not discussed if other supervisors would be willing to allocate their salary increase to the potential Immigration Legal Defense Fund.
Bruce Stenslie, president and CEO of the nonprofit Economic Development Collaborative, at the supervisors meeting on Aug. 12.
Economics
“The direct economic benefit of undocumented workers in Ventura County is $5.4 billion,” said Bruce Stenslie of Ojai, who serves as president and CEO of the nonprofit Economic Development Collaborative, citing studies by Jamshid Damooei, California Lutheran University’s professor and director of economics, and the Bay Area Council, working with UC Merced.
Ventura County consists of 20% to 22% foreign-born residents, and about a quarter are undocumented. More than half of them have been here for more than 15 years, and nearly half have been here for more than 20 years, according to Stenslie.
“We call them undocumented, but they are deeply imbedded,” he said. “They have far higher labor-force participation rates — undocumented workers — than any other demographics we’ve been able to identify.”
Stenslie said without immigrant spending, “we shrink the economy overall by 20%.”
“The data is clear too, they are paying far more into the economy in taxes than they are taking out,” Stenslie said. “Nobody really disputes that data.”
This results from many undocumented immigrants being employed, thus they have federal income and payroll taxes withheld from their wages by employers, such as Social Security and Medicare.
Those without a Social Security Number obtain an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN, from the IRS to file their tax returns legally.
Despite tax contributions that some estimate could be in the billions nationwide, undocumented immigrants are largely ineligible for federal and state benefits funded by these taxes, like Social Security.
“It’s been long agreed and long consensus that the contributions of immigrants of all kinds to the economy of this nation and to others is absolutely essential to our well-being, to our growth,” Stenslie said. “If we don’t address the positive aspects more effectively and back off on the deportation issues, we’re going to do unprecedented harm to the economy.”
He added ICE action is having the largest impact.
“Workers are afraid to go to work. Even worse, workers are afraid to go and spend money,” he said. “Five percent of our GDP in Ventura County is directly generated by undocumented workers, or even 9% of it when you look at economic ripple effects of these workers.”
Stenslie said 40% of small businesses in California are owned by immigrants, and a quarter of those are owned by undocumented immigrants.
“This is not a crisis for undocumented workers only, for immigrants in particular,” Stenslie said. “It’s a crisis for all of us participating in the Ventura County economy today.”
Primitiva Hernandez, executive director of 805 UndocuFund, and Genevieve Flores-Haro, associate director of Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP), at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Aug. 12.
Other statistics
Primitiva Hernandez, executive director of 805 UndocuFund, shared statistics on the local immigrant population in Ventura County. 805UndocuFund is a nonprofit assisting immigrant residents that began in 2018 in response to the Thomas Fire. Since then, the group has distributed more than $9 million to local immigrant and migrant households.
“Our goal is to raise $1 million by the end of the year to meet the staggering need,” Hernandez said.
She added that, of the 56,945 immigrants currently in detention throughout the United States, 71.1% have no criminal convictions.
“Of course, there’s going to be a percentage that are your violent criminal offenders,” she said. “But the point here is that the great majority of the people that are being apprehended have no criminal convictions at all.”
805UndocuFund manages, alongside two other organizations, the Rapid Response Network, which provides alerts of immigration operations to people in Ventura, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.
“We have nearly 700 individuals that we have identified through our hotline in the Central Coast that have been impacted not only by July 10, but just immigration enforcement in general,” Hernandez said. “Over 400 of them are in Ventura County.”
The group launched an Emergency Assistance Fund, raising more than $340,000 and helping more than 200 families impacted by the recent immigration actions.
“Per capita, we have twice the amount of apprehensions compared to LA County,” Hernandez said. “Ventura County is the epicenter of the immigration enforcement, at least in California, and possibly in the U.S.”
Hernandez addressed the 10 juveniles found at the Glass House facility in Camarillo during the July 10 operation.
“All of them remain in ORR [Office of Refugee Resettlement] foster-care placements, which is still immigration detention,” Hernandez said, adding one just turned 18 and was reunited with his partner and baby in Mexico.
“If the federal government has trafficking concerns, the children should be treated as victims in need of services and support, not subjected to prolonged federal detention and deportation,” she said.
Ojai Councilmember Leslie Rule at the Aug. 12 Board of Supervisors meeting.
Public Comment
Public comment was overwhelmingly in favor of the supervisors approving and implementing Supervisor Vianey Lopez’s proposals at the Aug. 12 Board of Supervisors’ meeting.
Community leaders and government officials who spoke in favor included Assemblymember Steve Bennett; Santa Paula Mayor Pedro Chavez; Ojai Councilmember Leslie Rule; Oxnard Councilmembers Michaela Perez and Gabe Teran; Thousand Oaks Mayor David Newman, Thousand Oaks Councilmember Connie “Tie” Gutierrez; Ventura Councilmember Liz Campos; Fillmore Mayor Christina Villaseñor; and others.
“When constitutional violations happen through federal enforcement in Ojai, we say, ‘Not on my watch, not here, not now, not by us,’” Ojai Councilmember Rule said. “Ordinary people and local governments have always been the last line of defense against federal overreach, this is the American tradition of principled resistance.”
Other speakers ranged from high school students to retirees, sharing personal stories of working in the fields, of parents who migrated to the country in search of a better life, and of family impacts resulting from immigration operations.
Amalia Ochoa of Santa Paula, a retired farmworker who spent more than 40 years in the fields, is now an activist and community organizer.
“You have no idea the sacrifice that I did while I was working in the fields,” Ochoa said through her translator. “They’re not criminals, they’re like me, hard workers. I’m here to be their voice, because I’ve always said I want to be their voice. My husband also already passed away, and he was a farmworker too. He gave his life for the farmworkers, for all of us.”
Ivan Vega, policy and health equity manager at Future Leaders of America, shared a story on César Chavez Day in Ventura about his father being deported when Vega was 15 years old.
“If you had any food today, if you ate, thank a farmworker for harvesting your food,” he said during public comment. “Just a few years ago, immigrant farmworkers were hailed as essential to our society by the federal government, and today, those same workers are being hunted by that same government.”
Maria Elena Ramirez of Ojai, president of the newly formed United Democrats of the Ojai Valley club, and sister of the late Ventura County Supervisor Chair Carmen Ramirez, at the Aug. 12 Board of Supervisors meeting.
Maria Elena Ramirez of Ojai, president of the newly formed United Democrats of the Ojai Valley club, and sister of the late Ventura County Supervisor Chair Carmen Ramirez, held up a sticker, along with many others in the crowd, reading: “What Would Carmen Do?”
“Three years ago, today, almost at this very moment, my sister Carmen died,” Ramirez told the supervisors. “She would say, ‘Justice denied anywhere is justice denied everywhere,’ as Martin Luther King said.”
A few public commenters spoke out against the proposals, focusing on the cost to taxpayers and discrepancies about the role of government.
“This isn’t hateful, racist or discriminatory,” said James Greenfield of Restore the Vote Ventura during public comment. “Government is not a charity or nonprofit. If you want to run one, run one. … What country can you enter in illegally and expect to get free services from, and then expect to get them from taxing the people to pay for them?”
Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff at a press conference in front of the Ventura County Government Center on Oct. 22, 2024.
Sheriff responds
Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff provided a public comment prior to agenda item 69 at the Aug. 12 Ventura County Board of Supervisors’ meeting.
He reiterated that the Sheriff’s Office complies with Senate Bill 54, known as the California Values Act, which restricts local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement, with limited exceptions.
“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of activist groups that are trying to sow discord in our community and try and show that law enforcement is participating in immigration enforcement, which we are not,” Fryhoff said. “That is creating great harm to the long-established trust we’ve had in our community here.”
Fryhoff said that distrust can impact someone’s decision to call 9-1-1 in an emergency.
“We’re put in a very tough spot, but I want our community to know that we are not doing immigration enforcement,” he said. “If they need help, they can call us, and we will show up.”
Fryhoff also addressed some of the comments about the Sheriff’s Office’s role in the immigration operation that took place in Camarillo on July 10.
Fryhoff said if federal agencies doing raids are being attacked and assaulted, and call for assistance, the Sheriff’s Office will be there to “keep the peace,” and stated this was the case during the Glass House raids.
“We assisted in getting vehicles through an intersection, and then created a blockade for them to get their vehicles out,” Fryhoff said of the actions that day. “We did not use any munitions or any gas. Any use of force that was conducted was done so by the federal agencies that were there.”
Fryhoff will return to the Board of Supervisors on Sept. 30 at 6 p.m. for an annual Transparent Review of Unjust Transfers and Holds (TRUTH) Act forum, which addresses the types of communication law enforcement are allowed to have with immigration agencies.
“It’s specifically for people who are in our custody who have been held to answer or convicted of serious and violent crimes,” Fryhoff said of any communication between the Sheriff’s Office and immigration agencies. “Unless somebody also has a federal criminal warrant, which has been signed by a judge, then we can make an arrest on that, or hold somebody for that. We treat that warrant like we do any other out-of-county warrant. We’ll hold the person for five days, until the federal agency picks them up and that’s it. If they don’t pick them up within the timeline, they’ll be released, provided they don’t have any other charges.”