Thousands in Santa Barbara joined millions of marchers in cities across America Saturday to protest the war in Iran and condemn the Trump Administration for its actions against immigrants, the environment and the rule of law.
The president and his administration were squarely the target of the midday No Kings 3 rally. The protest drew a crowd into Alameda Park and filled six city blocks of Anacapa Street when marching to De La Guerra Plaza.
Event organizers, Indivisible SB, estimated the crowd at 12,000. Santa Barbara Police Lt. Nathan Beltran, did not provide a crowd estimate but said his officers reported the event was entirely non-violent.
Today’s events, according to local and national organizers, amounted to one of the largest mass protests in the country’s history, with 3,267 rallies in all 50 states and around the world.
Myra Paige, a leader of Indivisible SB, opened the event by citing Harvard University’s 3.5 rule: that non-violent protests are more successful than armed revolts once 3.5 percent of the population becomes engaged.
“We need 3.5 percent of the population mobilized to bring down this fascist government,” Paige told the crowd. “Here in Santa Barbara, we exceeded that number last June, then smashed it to pieces in October, and we are doing it again, right now.”
The Feb. 28 invasion of Iran and its cost in dollars and human lives animated many protesters.
U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its recent and high-profile raids and arrests, Trump’s elevation of fossil fuels over sustainable energy sources, and his disregard for Congress and the Constitution also drew ire from protesters.
Andrew Bermant hoisted a poster showing Trump’s key officials under the title “America’s Most Dangerous Domestic Terrorists.” He expressed what many others in the crowd said motivated them to participate.
When pressed, people said multiple grievances against the administration and its general lack of accountability made it impossible to single out a cause.
“We’re here protecting our democracy against whatever are the latest unconstitutional acts by Trump and his administration,” he said.
For the first 45 minutes of the gathering, people visited 24 organizations tabling in the park. Seven community leaders then delivered short speeches before the group marched, sang and chanted on their way to De La Guerra Plaza.
Many in the crowd said they believed the tide is already turning against Trump and the MAGA agenda. According to the latest opinion polls, 56 to 61 percent of Americans say they disapprove of Trump’s performance, while 38 to 41 percent approve. Can you cite which polls?
Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, was scheduled to speak but was held up in Washington, D.C. He wanted to vote against the Republican attempt to fund the TSA without the reforms to ICE that Democrats are demanding.
Indivisible SB leader Ian Paige read a statement from the Congressman.
“His [Trump’s] war in Iran is causing gas prices to skyrocket,” Carbajal wrote, adding that the invasion is costing American taxpayers $1 billion a day. “And let’s be clear. This is a war of choice. Our country was not in any immediate danger. There was no imminent threat to our families…
“I will continue fighting every single day to stop this illegal war. We still carry the scars of Iraq and Afghanistan. We know the heartbreak of seeing our young men and women return injured or not return at all from forever wars.”
Katie Davis, chair of the Santa Barbara-Ventura Chapter of the Sierra Club, also castigated Trump for the invasion, saying it was part of a pattern of rewarding his donors in the oil industry.
“It is so corrupt,” she said. “There is nothing that Trump won’t do to reward his friends in the oil industry who funded his campaign. He is so close to fossil fuels that he’s starting these wars—in Iran, in Venezuela—then handing over their oil to his friends.”
Remembering her sorrow over the destruction wrought by the 2015 Refugio oil spill, she reminded her audience that Trump is aggressively helping Sable Offshore Corp. to re-open a pipeline that county and state officials deemed unsafe.
He also has canceled incentives for alternative energy sources, she said, going so far as to pay a French energy company nearly $1 billion to abandon its wind energy project off New Jersey and to invest in fossil fuels instead.
But, she said, Santa Barbara has led the state and nation in clean energy goals—and will keep doing so. “Because we love this beautiful place,” she said. “It is our home and our responsibility, and no king is going to take it from us.”
Santa Barbara City Councilwoman Wendy Santamaria encouraged the audience to pay attention to local government. She made a special plea to support the temporary —and controversial—rent stabilization ordinance approved by the council last month.
“I’ve been speaking to local business owners whose workforces cannot afford to live anywhere near here,” said Santamaria, one of four city councilmembers to vote in favor of the ordinance.
“Restaurants, hotels, schools. They all rely on workers who are being priced out—all in the middle of ICE kidnappings and everything else this administration is throwing at us.”
Other speakers described the miseries Trump’s administration has inflicted on immigrants and encouraged the crowd to keep protecting them.
Attorney Maria Salguero of the Immigrant Legal Defense Fund described herself as “having audacity” when defending a client against ICE agents who were trying to arrest her.
Agents called her client in for a “surprise” appointment days before Christmas. They then tried to arrest her for allegedly missing appointments.
“We have to detain her. Her freedom has been revoked,” the agents said, according to Salguero.
Salguero retorted, “Prove it.” The agent had no paperwork nor any other evidence to support their charges.
“Because of our act of pushing back, standing firm in our audacity to stand for immigrant communities, my client was not detained that day,” Salguero said. “She got to go home to her family for Christmas, and she’s still with them today.
Three of the speakers were young: Cesar Vasquez, 18, a rapid response organizer with 805 Immigrant Rapid Response Network; Calli Fonua, 21, from Indivisible SBCC; and Tallula Borman, 19, from Indivisible UCSB/Isla Vista.
Vasquez exhorted the crowd to work directly with oppressed people, with the “people who struggle every day” and not sit in the comfort of a single day of protest and speeches.
“The struggle did not start in 2016 with the election of Donald Trump,” he said. “The struggles did not start…with the creation of ICE.
“The struggle started when we were born to look and act different. The struggle started when the system decided that this was a good enough reason to lock us in cages, and throw us in the backs of vans like lambs being sent to the slaughter.”
Tallula Borman, the founder of Indivisible UCSB/Isla Vista. She offered a positive message, saying she was inspired by people young and old coming together for the future of her generation.
“The love and resistance that you demonstrate as we stand here together is truly beautiful,” she said. “As a community, as fellow Americans and as fellow human beings. Seeing all your faces reinstills the hope that we all share for a better tomorrow.”
Indivisible SB’s Myra Paige, who organized the rally along with 18 non-profit community groups, said she likewise feels hopeful, provided people stay informed and active.
“Democracy is not a spectator sport,” she said. “We cannot sit back, bury our heads in the sand and hope someone in Washington will grow a spine.
“We are faced with the task of ending America’s descent into fascism and building back to a world where we can all thrive, not just the 1 percent.”
Keep showing up, she said, “And we will take back the House and Senate in November and we will take back the White House in 2028. And always, always remember what John Lewis said: “Let’s make good trouble.”
(Photo by Patricia Stark/Special for the News-Press)
