Anaheim officials are boosting their newly minted immigrant aid fund by $250,000 to help residents reeling from ICE raids – either causing some people to stay home or a household breadwinner getting detained.
The fund, created last month along with a city webpage detailing various legal resources for residents, was largely funded by donations until Tuesday night.
Mayor Ashleigh Aitken, who requested the funding, said the money only scratches the surface and that officials need to respond to residents with speed and compassion.
“Current immigration actions are sowing fear among our residents and intimidating our communities. Unjust enforcement every day is tearing our families apart, and it’s tearing at the fabric of our community. It’s endangering our economy,” said at Tuesday’s council meeting.
“It’s a facade of unity with the community if we’re not willing to put a dime towards helping our residents.”
Officials are eyeing using the city’s housing trust fund – a pot of money meant to help residents buy their first home and avoid eviction that was kickstarted with a $30 million commitment from Disney as part of a park expansion agreement.
It’s money city staff said they have to check if they can actually use towards the aid fund.
If housing dollars including money donated by Disney can’t be legally used for the fund, officials plan to move around money allocated to different city departments to get the $250,000 aid fund boost.
It comes after Anaheim used tens of millions of dollars in one-time revenue sources to address a roughly $64 million budget gap to adopt a balanced budget last month as staff report a decrease in hotel tax revenue.
[Read: Orange County Cities Scramble to Patch Budget Gaps]
On Tuesday, city council members voted 5-2 to bolster the fund that has been operating on donations for the last month with a quarter of a million dollars – making it the biggest immigrant aid program through a city currently in Orange County.
City Council members Natalie Meeks and Ryan Balius, whose campaigns were both supported by Disneyland Resort interests, voted against putting money towards the fund for impacted families, pointing primarily to the city’s struggle to balance the budget.
Balius acknowledged that families are getting separated, people are afraid and lives are being disrupted but said the city needs to serve all residents in need equally and consider those on housing wait lists amid significant budget pressure.
“It’s important to recognize not only the crisis our residents face, but many Anaheim families, including seniors on fixed income, low wage workers, veterans, single family, parents – everybody struggling with food, with rent, with utilities, mental health challenges.” he said
“We’ve got what I think I heard today, roughly 42,000 residents on wait lists for eight to 10 years seeking rental assistance with Section 8 and other programs that are out there. Anyways, I’m just a little bit concerned that we’re bypassing a few of those people and creating a different thing.”
Meeks argued that the money will barely make a dent in helping residents, President Donald Trump still has over three years in his term and their budget is extremely tight.
“I really believe this immigration issue we need to address at a legislative level, and work with our legislators to figure out pathways to citizenship and how to to resolve this issue that’s been out here for decades,” Meeks said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“Throwing $250,000 because it makes us feel good doesn’t solve the issue.”
Aitken said the city is supposed to help people and pointed to Meeks’ support to crackdown on homeless encampments last year and how those costs were absorbed by the budget.
“You don’t want to just pass this off on to staff, when that was actually your idea less than a year ago, and from the one department alone, from September 2024 to June 2025, that reallocation of just one department’s budget was over $3.2 million to arrest and move unhoused people,” Aitken said.
“And now we are talking about a quarter of a million dollars to try to help keep people in their houses. It just doesn’t make any sense to me.”
City Councilman Carlos Leon said the city doesn’t have time to wait for a legislative process to play out at the federal level.
“These are real people. These are real families,” he said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“And for many families, especially mixed-status households where the children are US citizens, there’s an invisible and heavy weight that is being carried every day. It’s the fear of separation, the fear of instability, the fear that no one is going to be able to step in legally.”
Will Anaheim Lean on Resort Interests to Aid Immigrants?
City Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava, whose council campaign was backed by Disneyland resort interests and who defeated a recall effort with help from those same interests, said one of the city’s largest employers declined to support the fund.
The Walt Disney Company is the largest employer in Orange County and in Anaheim and earlier this year, the city accepted an initial $15 million from Disney for Anaheim’s affordable housing needs.
Rubalcava also was the first to suggest using some of the money given to them by Disney for housing towards the fund.
“They’re going to give even if they don’t want to,” Rubalcava said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Aitken said the city will keep asking Disney for money for the aid fund.
“We’re not letting them off the hook. Because technically, this is our money,” she said, adding that Disney can still make a donation itself to the fund.
Disney representatives did not respond to emailed questions on the issue Wednesday
It comes after Vice President JD Vance visited Disneyland last week.
Anaheim Leads Way on Immigration Aid in OC
Anaheim became the first OC city to launch a fund last month giving out grants to families through donations while rolling out a page on the city’s website detailing immigrant rights and a list of organizations that can help.
The webpage also details recent immigration enforcement activity.
[Read: Anaheim Rolls Out Aid Program for Residents Impacted by ICE Raids]
Anaheim officials’ decision to bolster the fund comes after a federal judge temporarily blocked the Department of Homeland Security from detaining people in Southern California solely based on their race, language or occupation.
[Read: Federal Judge Orders Immigration Agents to Halt Stops Based on Race]
On Tuesday, a majority of Santa Ana officials voted behind closed doors to join the lawsuit spearheaded by the ACLU against the raids – the first Orange County city to do so.
[Read: Santa Ana Becomes First OC City to Join Federal Lawsuit Against ICE Raids]
On Friday, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction against federal officials, barring them from conducting warrantless immigration stops allegedly based on race.
According to the July 15 evening update on the Anaheim Contigo website, there have been no federal immigration sweeps in the city since July 9.
Santa Ana officials also approved the launch of a $100,000 financial aid program for immigrants impacted by the uptick in visible and aggressive widespread ICE raids in the region.
[Read: As ICE Raids Continue in OC, Santa Ana Creates $100,000 Aid Fund for Impacted]
Officials there initially proposed a $1 million aid fund to support immigrant residents but settled on $100,000 after spending over an hour debating where to pull the money from police vacancies, city reserves or the council’s travel budget.
Meanwhile, Anaheim’s immigrant aid fund, operated by the nonprofit Anaheim Community Foundation, started in June to help families unable and afraid to go to work.
Those looking to apply for a one-time grant can do so through Anaheim’s network of family resource centers across the city. The money is sent directly to the applicant’s landlord or public utility companies.
City spokesman Mike Lyster said at Tuesday’s meeting the aid fund has received $35,000 in donations and has doled out seven grants totalling around $3,000 combined.
Janis Heckel, executive director of the Anaheim Community Foundation, said the $35,000 comes from a $10,000 donation from Anaheim Public Utilities, $10,000 from the Samueli Foundation, $5,500 donation from Councilwoman Norma Kurtz and a $2,200 donation from Leon.
The rest comes from individual donations.
As of Tuesday, over 150 residents have applied for the financial aid grants with 15 people awaiting payment, 27 in the process of getting help and 113 waiting to get aid pending more funding, according to Lyster.
Lyster said the raids are the most impactful thing Anaheim residents have gone through since the COVID pandemic, pointing to a car wash that was repeatedly raided in the city.
“We’ve heard of some families having to move because they fear their address is known. We’ve heard a lot,” he said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“This is certainly meeting a moment. None of us can say how long this moment will go on.”
Editor’s note: Ashleigh Aitken’s father, Wylie Aitken, chairs Voice of OC’s board of directors.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.