Santa Cruz City Council reviews immigrant protection regulations

The Santa Cruz Police Department is again clearing up its role in the recent ice raid Tuesday night.

Before the city council and rooms overflowing with residents, deputy chief Dan Flippo gave more details about the department’s involvement and again calling the Department of Homeland Security’s actions dishonest.

Some residents say they want to keep their community safe but not at the expense of the immigrant community.

One of the neighbors was still trying to understand how the police chief agreed to the raid to begin with.

“I wonder if he took upon himself, did he not know the implications of having homeland security help with a drug bust right after all the immigration fiasco was happening in Washington?” Capitola resident Ramon Berger said.

“This was an HSI operation. We were told at one point, frankly, they did not care the immigration status of the people that they contacted at these locations. They were solely going after the people on the indictment,” Flippo said.

Flippo gave a play-by-play presentation, including the timeline of the investigation and why the Department of Homeland Security became involved.

Flippo said after learning about the scope of this case, his department determined DHS to be the appropriate lead agency.

He reiterated multiple times that the police department was betrayed by DHS.

And DHS is firing back. Ryan Spradlin, a special agent in charge of the San Francisco office backed up his officers, saying in part, “I’m confident their efforts made the community of Santa Cruz safer and they deserve better than this negative attention.”

The city council also voted on a resolution to protect its immigrant community and potentially establish an ordinance with similar language.