More than 100 students at Lompoc High School walked out of class Friday to show their support for Erik Zepeda, a Santa Maria High School student who was detained by federal immigration agents while walking to school last week.
Students used their lunch break to protest immigration enforcement and bring attention to concerns they say are growing among families across the Central Coast.
Gary Jeffery, a Lompoc High School student who helped organize the walkout, said students are worried about their families.
I think a lot of us fear for our families and our neighbors and our friends, Jeffery said. Our goal is to create visibility for the community that our youth care.
Hilda Gutierrez, a parent, said the concerns extend beyond one family or nationality.
It’s not just one nationality; it’s the attack on everybody, Gutierrez said.
Investigation into Erik Zepeda’s detention
In a statement to KSBY on Wednesday, an Immigration and Customes Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson said agents believed Zepeda matched the description of a person they were looking for.
The Santa Maria Police Department and the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office are coordinating with other agencies as they review the incident.
U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal also raised concerns about federal immigration enforcement in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE leadership.
Beyond this incident, I have seen alarming reports of U.S. citizens being detained and injured and heard of families and farmworkers with no criminal record who have been caught up in aggressive interior enforcement actions, Carbajal wrote.
Carbajal is calling for a thorough investigation into recent federal immigration enforcement operations across the Central Coast.
Meanwhile, a recent federal court ruling could affect how immigration agents conduct stops across the region.
In the case of Vasquez Perdomo v. Mullin, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction restricting immigration agents from conducting stops based on racial stereotyping or without individualized reasonable suspicion.
The order applies to seven counties within the Central District of California, including Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. It also includes exceptions for stops at ports of entry, checkpoints and other functional equivalents of the border.
Immigration attorney Rodolfo Marquez said the ruling requires agents to have specific reasons before detaining someone.
Agents had to have specific, individualized, reasonable suspicion in order to detain someone for being here unlawfully, Marquez said. They couldn’t base it just on how someone looked.
Marquez also emphasized the importance of knowing one’s rights, including the right to remain silent during an encounter with immigration agents.
The federal government has appealed the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Marquez said the appeals court could change or pause the injunction, potentially affecting the restrictions on immigration enforcement.
KSBY News reached out to ICE’s Los Angeles office asking for updated arrest numbers, whether additional enforcement operations were taking place in the area and the agency’s response to the recent protests.
A Los Angeles ICE spokesperson directed KSBY to the White House arrest map.
The map lists 373 arrests between Jan. 23, 2025, and May 28, 2026. However, it did not provide updated figures showing more recent arrests.
KSBY News will continue following developments in the investigation and the federal court case.