Protesters say federal money would tie SLO County to ICE. Supervisors disagree
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- SLO County accepted a $316K DHS grant despite community concerns over ICE ties.
- Sheriff clarified state law prohibits local law enforcement from aiding ICE efforts.
- Grant funds will upgrade public safety, fire, and election security equipment in 2025.
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors accepted an annual U.S. Department of Homeland Security grant for new public safety gear on Tuesday despite community concerns that accepting the funds would unwittingly enter the county into a cooperative agreement with the federal agency that oversees Immigration Customs and Enforcement.
The over $300,000 grant — which the county has received every year in varying dollar amounts since 2001 — will pay for new gear for the county Sheriff’s Office, fire department and elections office to “enhance local emergency response and preparedness capabilities associated with potential homeland security incidents as well as other types of emergencies,” according to the staff report.
Tuesday’s meeting was packed with dozens of concerned residents calling for the board to reject the grant. Signs that read “ICE out of 805” scattered the crowd.
According to county supervisors and Sheriff Ian Parkinson, the Homeland Security funds are regularly accepted by the county and are not indicative of cooperation with ICE.
But many of the residents who attended Tuesday’s meeting or wrote in to protest saw the gift as “blood money.”
“Grants come with strings,” Mary Robinson, of Morro Bay, said. “There’s always strings attached to a grant.”
After a lengthy public comment period, during which some people switched positions after hearing Parkinson’s comments about the state laws that limit local law enforcements’ collaboration with federal immigration agents, the board accepted the funds.
“We cannot participate, and we do not participate, in any contact with ICE,” Parkinson said.
What will the DHS grant fund?
The federal Homeland Security grant will deliver $316,482 to SLO County to purchase specialized safety and law enforcement equipment across multiple departments, according to the staff report.
The largest allocation of $219,569 will go to the Sheriff’s Office for two search and surveillance drones, six sets of helmet-mounted night vision googles and eight door breaching tools for SWAT team entries. The drones will cost $47,000, the night vision binoculars $73,000 and the door breaching tools $99,569.
The SLO County Fire Department will receive the second-highest portion of $75,000 for hazardous material detection equipment, including $35,000 for a mercury vapor detector, $15,000 for a methane gas leak detector and $25,000 for a ultrasonic leak detector.
Finally, $21,913 will fund election security improvements for the Clerk-Recorder’s Office, specifically $6,913 for electronic door access control locks and $15,000 for plexiglass security barriers to protect staff areas and prevent unauthorized access to election facilities.
The grant funds will be distributed retroactively, with the county fronting the costs before receiving federal reimbursement.
Do DHS grant funds tie SLO County to ICE?
The conversation about the Homeland Security grant kicked off Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, with Parkinson taking to the dais shortly after 9 a.m. to clear up “misinformation” about the relationship between local law enforcement and federal immigration agents.
“Local law enforcement has not been involved in immigration for decades,” Parkinson said.
The California TRUST, TRUTH and Values Acts place limitations on local law enforcement officers from communicating and cooperating with ICE, including prohibiting police from detaining people based solely on immigration status or sharing someone’s immigration status with federal authorities, requiring officers to notify undocumented immigrants in jail when ICE agents ask for their release date and declaring California a “sanctuary state” for non-criminal undocumented immigrants.
If law enforcement even asked someone their immigration status, they would be breaking the law, Parkinson said.
The only exceptions to these rules are if the person has been convicted of a violent felony or if ICE has a federal judicial warrant.
“I believe in the rule of law,” Parkinson said. “Whatever the law is is what I’m going to follow.”
Parkinson said these state laws, along with the fact that the Homeland Security grant must pass through and be approved by the state, should act as proof that there is nothing nefarious going on with the money.
“If there was suspicion of something being given specifically for immigration enforcement, I don’t think it would get approved through the state,” he said.
Though some attendees were convinced by Parkinson’s reasoning, others disagreed.
“Even though we’ve received it before, things are not the same times,” said Rita Casaverde, Diversity Coalition San Luis Obispo County executive director. “Things have changed completely ... . This cannot be treated as the same as just another year.”
Dozens of people wrote in ahead of the board meeting or commented on Tuesday morning. Many repeated similar concerns over ICE tactics of sending masked men in plain clothes and unidentifiable vehicles on immigration operations.
One email commenter described the grant as a “bribe” that ICE offered SLO County to “help them with their despicable acts.”
Multiple public comments and emails compared ICE detention centers to World War II concentration camps. Others called the board to designate SLO county as a sanctuary county.
“This is exactly like what happened in Germany, where people are snatched and sent to the Gulag,” one speaker said. “I don’t think that’s hyperbole.”
Casaverde’s sentiment was shared among most at the meeting.
“How important is that funding?” she asked the board. “Is it more important than the trust of the community?”
Board of Supervisors accepted Homeland Security grant
For the Board of Supervisors, the decision to accept the grant rested on whether the community’s concerns were founded — and according to supervisors, the public was misinformed.
“In this particular case, the thing then, for me, is whether or not this grant comes with strings attached,” Supervisor Jimmy Paulding said. “ ... This particular grant does not come with those strings attached.”
In light of recent county budget cuts in the ballpark of $38 million, Paulding highlighted the need to be fiscally responsible.
“If we didn’t use this money, then we’d have to dip into some other funding source, and that wouldn’t be responsible,” he said.
Supervisor Bruce Gibson said he shared public commenters’ outrage at the actions of ICE and the Trump administration.
“What we’ve seen from ICE is inhumane, it’s illegal, it’s immoral, and frankly, it’s un-American,” he said. “To be standing tall against those actions, however you come to this, to this issue, is incredibly important.”
However, the fact of the matter is that this grant does not tie the county to ICE, he said.
“I don’t think that rejecting $300,000 of these monies is going to send nearly as strong a message as you have today,” Gibson told the crowd.
He noted that a portion of the funds will go toward public health and protecting elections processes as SLO County heads into the 2026 elections.
“I do not believe that accepting this money, that I am losing the trust of the community that I was elected to represent,” Supervisor John Peschong said.
This story was originally published August 6, 2025 at 9:00 AM.
