“The recurrent feeling is fear," says Julissa Peña, Executive Director of the Immigrant Legal Defense Center in Santa Barbara.
Peña says her office has been overwhelmed in recent weeks, not only with legal inquiries but emotional pleas for mental health support, especially from families affected by ICE arrests across the Central Coast.
"We had unaccompanied immigrant children that we were representing for legal services come to us desperately asking us to please connect them with a therapist,” Peña said.
The nonprofit currently provides legal services to more than 500 people, with another 120 on a waitlist. But when it comes to mental health, Peña says they have only one therapist on staff.
“If we don’t invest in mental health support services for immigrant families, the consequences will ripple far beyond the individual and impact entire communities,” she added.
On June 17, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, led by Chair Laura Capps, unanimously approved $240,000 in emergency funding from cannabis tax revenues to expand mental health services at the center.
“To me, it’s choosing to help humanity against forces that are really about power and fear,” Supervisor Capps said.
The funding will allow the center to immediately hire two additional mental health professionals.
“We’re facing a crisis right now, an immigration crisis. Families are being torn apart literally every day right here in this community, and it’s heart-wrenching. We wanted to act. We wanted to channel that outrage into real action,” Capps said.
The board plans to re-evaluate the program’s impact in six months.
