‘All I knew was to honk’: Guadalupe candidates talk ICE, budget at forum

When Christina Hernandez came across ICE agents near the Guadalupe cemetery, she froze.

“I always thought that I would have a lot to say to them,” Hernandez said. “But at that time I was
scared. I was anxious, and nothing could come out of my mouth as much as I wanted to advocate
for my community. All I knew was to honk.”

She told the story at a Oct. 12 city of candidate forum for mayor and City Council that the
League of Women Voters North Santa Barbara County hosted in the City Hall council chambers
ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

Hernandez, who is running for mayor, said the fear reaches families with legal status.

“My dad is a citizen, and he’s like, I need to get my passport,” Hernandez said. “That fear is
real.”

Hernandez said a man was detained in town and that after she called the police chief, officers came and family members thanked them.

“Thank you for standing in solidarity,” she said they told the officers.

Her opponent, Ariston Julian, who said he has served on the city council for 12 years, was the
most pointed.

“ICE is wrong. I would defund ICE,” Julian said. “Arresting the people that look Mexicano or
that are brown, it’s just wrong. It’s just totally wrong.”

He said about 50 new people came to the city’s most recent food bank, and that organizers do not
ask whether they are documented. “We don’t care. They’re people.”

The council candidates, Robert Diaz and Randy Altergott, who are both running for the first
time, agreed that agents should follow the law but split on what the city should do. Diaz said he
has family “actively hiding every single day.”

“I think the current tactics are brutal and completely unnecessary,” Diaz said. “If they were just
upholding the law, we wouldn’t have our entire community scared.”

Altergott said agents should go after “real criminals,” but he doubted a council resolution would
do much.

“There’s no binding anything to that,” Altergott said. “It’s just feel-good stuff, and I think we
have other issues that we can actually work with.”

Asked what resources the city can offer immigrant families, Altergott said he did not know of
any beyond directing people to nonprofits.

Julian offered a different model, pointing to the 2023 flood on Pioneer Street, which he said
displaced 10 families, most of them undocumented. He said 45 people and agencies pulled
together, putting families in City Hall for a night and then in nearby housing, before help arrived
from the county, state or federal governments.

“Guadalupe is a pretty tight network,” Julian said. “Once you know that somebody needs
something, they’re there to help you.”

A network of neighbors can’t close the city’s budget gap.

Julian said the city adopted its 2026-27 budget “almost three million dollars in a deficit” and expects to stay in deficit for nearly two more years. He said part of the problem was that the city “had not paid attention to the grant process,” so it had to cover grant costs from its general fund while waiting to be reimbursed.

Altergott said he did not yet know enough to say what he would cut.

“Being new to the council, I will have to do some research on what the current budget is,”
Altergott said. “I know, I think it’s online, but I have to go look it up and study it.”

Hernandez said she would press for a binder of grant information, as she saw in Goleta, so
residents don’t have to dig through agency websites. She also cited a Santa Barbara Foundation
report that she said found only 10% of nonprofit services make it to Guadalupe.

“That, to me, is not okay,” Hernandez said.

Julian said the language barrier is part of the problem. He said the city bought translation
equipment but did not use it because no one asked for it.

“A lot of Mexicanos do not like to come to community meetings because it’s in English,” Julian
said. “We need to get out into the community.”

Candidates also shared what they want Guadalupe to become. Altergott called for a boutique
hotel so visitors to the dunes don’t have to stay in Santa Maria, and a nighttime restaurant. Diaz
said the town should stop being treated as a stop on the way somewhere else.

“We’re so much more than just a gateway to wherever,” Diaz said. “We are a destination.”

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