Community Members Highlight Local ICE Abductions at County Jail Featuring Ribbon Installation Memorial

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SAN LUIS OBISPO. On Sunday, August 16, community members and activists installed a striking visual memorial on the San Luis Obispo County Jail fence facing Highway 1, directly naming the Sheriff's Office role in ICE's abduction of 83 people from the county this year.

This visual ribbon memorial, dozens of orange ribbons woven across the fence’s slatted panels, signifies the 83 people who have been abducted from the county this year, one ribbon for each person taken. Beside it, a white sign with bold black and red lettering reads: “FREEDOM AND JUSTICE DENIED! ICE KIDNAPPED 83 PEOPLE IN OUR COUNTY YTD.” Mounted on the barbed-wire-topped jail fence itself, the installation was impossible to miss from the road.

In direct violation of California law SB54, the Sheriff's Office is illegally supporting and colluding with ICE to enable the abduction of more than 83 people from this county this year. Sheriff Parkinson has shown a blatant disregard for the law he is sworn to follow.

Armed ICE agents position themselves at the jail's release door, waiting to seize people the moment they walk out, carrying weapons that violate the Sheriff's own posted guidelines for that space. These same agents have threatened and assaulted the witnesses who show up to document it. This is not a Sheriff protecting the San Luis Obispo community. This is a Sheriff who has chosen ICE's agenda over the people of our county he was elected to serve.

Sheriff Parkinson's office reports releasing only 39 people to ICE this year, less than half the 83 documented in person by eyewitness community members, a gap the Sheriff has never explained.

This is not the only law being ignored inside that lobby. County policy bars weapons beyond the jail's parking lot and again at the lobby door, with no exception for federal officers. Every other law enforcement agency that enters the jail locks its weapons in the vehicle first. ICE does not.

ICE Out of SLO County holds a weekly rally protesting the Sheriff's cooperation with ICE every Sunday from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the corner of Highway 1 and Kansas Avenue.

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