While two of Orange County’s largest cities, Santa Ana and Anaheim – both with large Latino communities – posted resources online to help immigrant families impacted by ICE raids, Orange city leaders balked at the idea this week.
Orange city council members launched into a sharp debate Tuesday night over the idea of listing resources on the city website for impacted immigrant families.
City Councilwomen Arianna Barrios and Ana Gutierrez called on their colleagues to support the proposal after reacting to the Saturday arrest of Narciso Barranco – a 48-year-old landscaper who made national news after federal immigration agents punched him in the head while he was face down in the middle of a Santa Ana street, a detention captured in videos posted to social media.
Gutierrez said she was motivated to speak out after seeing various troubling sweeps throughout Orange County, like Barranco’s.
“The most recent and inhumane just occurred this past weekend to Narciso Barranco, the father of three U.S. Marines, all OUSD (Orange Unified School District) graduates, who was brutally taken down, beaten and taken away to a detention center as he was working as a landscaper at an IHOP,” Gutierrez said at Tuesday night’s council meeting.
Yet her take drew a sharp response from Councilman Jon Dumitru, who bristled at the proposal, saw Barranco’s situation through a starkly different lens, saying he tried assaulting federal agents – echoing a Department of Homeland Security social media post.
“I take umbrage with using Mr. Barranco as an icon of civility. The man was fleeing the police. He swung his tools at him, if you see the whole video, and he tries to attempt a carjacking during that process, the whole video is actually very telling,” Dumitru said at Tuesday’s council meeting. “Should what have happened after he was restrained continue? No, that was wrong.”
Barranco’s son, 25-year-old Orange resident Alejandro Barranco, disputes that characterization of events.
“No – nowhere in the video is the weedwacker anywhere near the agents,” Alejandro Barranco said in a Tuesday interview.
Alejandro Barranco, who served in the Marine Corps from 2019 to 2023, said his dad was pepper sprayed before he tried running away from Customs and Border Patrol officers, adding that he was reflexively reacting to the chemical agent.
He also said his father – who’s been landscaping since the 1990s – doesn’t have a criminal record, which is also reflected through a search of OC Superior Court records. He added that his dad was in the process of getting documentation through a program for parents of service members.
“I feel so mad about it still,” said Alejandro Barranco, who’s also a landscaper. “It hurts alot.”
Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento also weighed in on the Saturday arrest.
“Unfortunately, we see what happened to Mr. Barranco all too often. He was punched in the face multiple times. As you could see, he was pepper sprayed at close distance, and his shoulder was dislocated. His son gave up four years of his life to serve his country, and he clearly said that his father was racially profiled,” Sarmiento said during the OC Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday.
Gutierrez also said there’s been immigration sweeps in her neighborhood.
“Just two weeks ago in my neighborhood in El Modena, ICE apprehended a Latino man in the parking lot of the old Ace Hardware. Word got out quickly, rumors were flying and fear was struck into my neighborhood. No one felt safe to come out, regardless of legal status,” she said.
The councilwoman then said the sweeps landed right in front of her porch.
“Just two days after that, in front of my home, I, along with my daughter and my neighbors, witnessed immigration randomly pick up another Latino man who was walking down the sidewalk, place him in a van and swiftly drive him away within less than 30 seconds,” Gutierrez said.
Department of Homeland Security officials say federal agents are carefully conducting the sweeps.
“DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted. We do our due diligence. We know who we are targeting ahead of time. If and when we do encounter individuals subject to arrest, our law enforcement officers are trained to ask a series of well-determined questions to determine status and removability,” official said in a June 19 email.
But Alejandro Barranco, who visited his dad in a Los Angeles detention center for roughly eight minutes on Tuesday, said his father was simply doing a side job on Saturday for extra income, adding that federal agents racially profiled him.
He also said his father still had his bloodied work clothes on as of Tuesday morning, adding that he spoke with him about potentially being stopped by federal agents beforehand.
“I told him, stay calm – don’t fight back, don’t resist,” Alejandro Barranco said. “We also imagined they’d be coming up in uniform … it’s the complete opposite; civilian clothes, big guns out, masks on – so my dad wasn’t prepared for that. He was scared and ran away.”
Is it Time to Worry?
Mayor Dan Slater said immigrants who are in the process of getting documented or have documents shouldn’t have to worry about getting caught up in ICE sweeps.
“Anyone that’s documented, has legal status here. I know that a lot of you are worried, and that may be because you come from a country that doesn’t practice the same respect and laws that we do, but you have nothing to worry about,” Slater said.
But the Orange County Rapid Response Network – an immigration advocacy group – says otherwise.
Sandra De Anda, program coordinator for the network, said she and her colleagues have seen people being routinely detained by federal agents outside of immigration hearings and check-ins in Santa Ana.
“Many of the individuals have stopped going to immigration court hearings because of the fear of being detained, even though they are doing everything by the book,” De Anda said in a Tuesday phone interview.
She also said many volunteers are “going to the courthouses every week to document what is happening,” adding that they’re trying to get attorneys to people who don’t have one.
Gutierrez echoed similar concerns at Tuesday’s meeting.
“You cannot say that you are going to be fine and you have nothing to be worried about because that’s not what we’re seeing, and that’s not what’s occurring,” she said, disagreeing with the mayor.
Slater said this is a federal issue.
“We don’t have any control over what the feds are doing in our city,” he said.”Personally, I think that we should probably stay out of it and let law enforcement do their job.”
Gutierrez criticized the ICE raids.
“This despicable, inhumane manner of enforcing immigration laws is attempting to break us, incite fear, terrorize us, round up whomever with or without cause, legal or not legal, and pushes for self deportation,” she said.
“This is Operation Wetback from 1954 all over again.”
The rest of the city council members – Kathy Tavoularis, John Gyllenhammer and Denis Bilodeau – did not comment on the ICE raids or the proposals Tuesday night.
In emails after publication of this article, Dumitru said that he believes ICE agents need to be clearly identifiable.
“That is a basic expectation in a society governed by transparency and accountability. Confusion about who is enforcing the law creates unnecessary tension and risk for everyone involved,” Dumitru wrote.
At the same time, he said the issue is outside the city council’s purview arguing that immigration is a federal issue.
No City Resources for Impacted Orange Residents
The City of Orange, where Latinos make up 40% of the city’s roughly 138,000 residents, doesn’t have any sort of resources for immigrants on its website – like links to advocacy and legal organizations or mutual aid networks.
A resource page is something cities like Anaheim and Santa Ana have posted on their municipal websites at a time when Orange County is seeing an uptick in visible immigration sweeps.
Last week, Anaheim officials rolled out a page on the city’s website detailing immigrant rights, a list of organizations that can help and has city grants for Anaheim families impacted by the immigration sweeps.
[Read: Anaheim Rolls Out Aid Program for Residents Impacted by ICE Raids]
In Santa Ana, City Council members next Tuesday are expected to consider establishing an aid program similar to Anaheim, getting records from the federal government about the deportation sweeps and pushing local Congress Representatives to remove ICE from the city.
On Tuesday night, Orange City Councilwoman Barrios suggested that the city list resources on their website for families impacted by the raids.
“At the very least, for those of our families who have been affected or impacted, could we maybe post on our website some resources for them where they can go, what other nonprofits are available, where they can either seek legal counsel or they can go,” Barrios suggested.
“For those who have had their employment separations, certainly, and for employment interruptions, where they can go and get some guidance and some resources. I think that that is the minimum that we could do as a city to let people know that we care,” she said.
Tom Kisela, who is wrapping up his time as city manager, asked for clarification on Barrios and Gutierrez’s request, asking what language city officials would like included on the website.
Wayne Winthers, the interim city attorney, said something like that needs to be decided by the council as a whole.
“Council members,” Slater told Gutierrez and Barrios, “I am not seeing support for your suggestions. I’m sorry.”
Dumitru pushed back on posting information, arguing they don’t post resources online for other groups.
“We as a body have not put on information to assist veterans. We haven’t put on information to assist the homeless,” Dumitru said.
The city does have a web page with resources for homeless people.
Barrios also proposed officials consider a resolution in support of protesters’ First Amendment rights, in support of protecting immigrant residents and demanding federal agencies that are coming to their town to treat people with dignity and respect.
“It is a federal issue,” Barrios said. “But when it does come into our city, when we see people scared and really profiled in the way they have been and hurt because of the aggressive tactics, I do think that we have an obligation to speak out.”
But Dumitru said the city doesn’t need a resolution supporting free speech because its protected by the constitution and that protests have been happening regularly in the city.
“That’s fine. Protest. You do it peacefully, because the second you break the law – you want to be in 1960s, we’ll return to 1960s,” Dumitru said. “There should be fire hoses, I have no problem with that because if you break the law, you’re breaking the law.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
Spencer Custodio is the civic editor. You can reach him at scustodio@voiceofoc.org. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerCustodio.
