Garden Grove City Council members will not issue an official collective response to the deportation sweeps that recently targeted day laborers at a Home Depot in the city.
At least for now.
On Tuesday, a majority of city council members voted to indefinitely table a resolution intended to be a response to the ICE raids amid consistent pressure from dozens of residents to take a stand against them in a city that encompasses parts of Little Saigon.
The decision came after about an hour of discussion among elected officials who struggled to agree on how best to respond to the immigration crackdown and address the fear it has sparked in a community home to many Latino and Asian immigrants.
“There’s a lot of opinions swirling around, I hear a desire from colleagues for something deeper or greater, not this,” said Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein at Tuesday’s meeting.
“I don’t feel that we are ready as a body to move forward on this, this evening.”
The resolution, originally adopted in 2017, would have reaffirmed that local police officers do not participate in federal immigration enforcement and recognized the fear felt by residents amid an increased federal law enforcement presence.
It did not explicitly denounce the deportation sweeps.
[Read: Will Garden Grove Officials Finally Respond to ICE Raids?]
Councilmembers Ariana Arestegui and Yesenia Muñeton were the dissenting votes.
Arestegui, who requested the resolution, said with the sweeps intensifying in recent weeks, it was important for the council to make a statement to retain the public’s trust as residents call on them to act.
“It’s about the public in our city trusting us and where we stand as a collective body, knowing that these are the values that we have,” she said “Again, this is a symbolic gesture, but it is a gesture that is symbolically intended to make our residents feel better.”
Muñeton said the council can not stay silent.
“Today we cannot fail our community’s plea for protection and support. I urge us as a united council to acknowledge that what is happening in our city is both real and it’s frightening,” she said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Councilman George Breitigam said the resolution would put a target on the city’s back and did not carry weight.
He also said the resolution would give residents a false sense of safety and would drive up deportation sweeps in the city.
“We’ve had less than six incidents in Garden Grove, less than six. I guarantee you, if we pass something like this, it is going to go dramatically up,” he said. “We’re a general law city. We don’t even have standing to fight.”
Arestegui pushed back on Breitigam.
“There have been more than six incidents of ICE activity in our city George. Super happy to connect you with people that have all of the records of this information so that you are adequately informed about the breadth and scope of the activity that’s been happening in our city,” she said.
Councilman Joe DoVinh said the best approach is to lay low.
“ICE is going to blow over,” he said. “I don’t want to give in to fear or fear mongering or becoming paralyzed and I think this storm will blow over. It is a storm – something we’ll have to weather. So I asked my fellow citizens to be patient. We’re deliberating.”
He also said while he wants to adopt a resolution in response to the deportation sweeps, he didn’t support the proposed one because it was duplicative, could cause confusion and denounces hate speech – something he said wasn’t a problem in the city and protected by the constitution.
“Until I see a hateful crime, I ain’t gonna denounce nobody for their expression,” he said, adding that free speech protects hate speech.
Councilwoman Cindy Ngoc Tran, like DoVinh, said she wants more time to work on the resolution – something City Attorney Omar Sandoval said they could do right there at the meeting because the resolution would have to come back.
The resolution comes on the heels of border patrol agents apparently detaining day laborers at a Home Depot in the city earlier this month despite a court order temporarily barring federal agents from detaining people solely based on factors like race or place of employment.
It also comes after a parent – who is a U.S. citizen – was wrongfully detained near a Garden Grove Unified Elementary School last week for about an hour forcing the school to go on a lockdown and leading the district to deploy support staff like counselors to the campus.
School officials said the detention was a case of mistaken identity.
[Read: Deportation Sweeps Pick Up Steam Again in Orange County]
Breitigam, a former police officer, said the parent was detained and not arrested – something he said happens all the time recounting his own experiences being detained by police who mistook him for a robbery suspect when he was a young man.
“The suspect was not arrested. He was detained, plain and simple and guess who else that happens to that happens to U.S. citizens because it happened to me,” he said.
Breitigam also said the resolution has no substance and questioned why they were considering it.
“We’re supposed to look at the overall effect on the community, not just placate one small group of the community,” he said, sparking groans from the audience and push back from Arestegui.
“You’re looking at a diverse community in Garden Grove, it doesn’t just have illegal
aliens in it.”
Residents Push For Immigrant Aid Support
For over an hour, a host of residents came out to Tuesday’s meeting asking council members to adopt the resolution with some calling on officials to list resources for immigrants on the city website and launch an immigrant aid fund for families impacted by the deportation sweeps.
Some invoked religious values of treating people with kindness and also said the local school district and residents have stepped up to help their neighbors with food drives and drop offs at a time when many immigrant families are afraid to leave their homes.
Many, like resident Christine Lopez Ediss, pointed to the recent deportation sweeps in Garden Grove and said the immigration enforcement is creating community trauma.
“I am here to express my concern of the unwarranted presence of ICE in our communities that are driving fear and disrupting our way of life. The unjustified raids by our current administration have hit local businesses. Kidnappings are happening in our neighborhoods,” Lopez Ediss said.
“We are grateful for our school district, car clubs and nonprofits who are stepping up to help. We are stretched thin. City council, what have you done? Where is the commitment to the community,” she said.
A couple of residents applauded the deportation sweeps.
One person called on the city council members to not allocate resources to undocumented immigrants and another asked the council not to interfere with the federal deportation dragnet.
“There is a potential effect on our federal funding,” said Tony Flores, a resident. “I am not bluffing. I’ve already talked to the Department of Justice. I will send a complaint in on this city.”
Tim Phan, civic engagement manager for VietRise, pointed to a federal court ruling this past weekend barring the federal government from withholding funding from cities that do not comply with the immigration crackdown and said deportation will have long term impacts.
“Every arrest, detainment and deportation sends ripples across an entire community,” he said.
“The children are especially affected by memories of their parents being ripped away by masked men, and that sense of fear and anxiety have far reaching consequences that harm all of us.”
How is OC Responding to ICE Raids?
Officials in Santa Ana, Anaheim, Irvine and Fullerton either voted to join the lawsuit against the ICE raids or are looking at supporting the legal efforts to end the raids through what’s known as an amicus brief.
Officials in Anaheim, Santa Ana and Costa Mesa have also allocated hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to financially support immigrants impacted by the deportation sweeps.
On Wednesday morning, Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento and other community leaders announced the launch of Orange County’s $1.5 million Liberty Fund – with public and private dollars –intended to support nonprofits that assist immigrant families navigate the legal system.
Santa Ana leaders have also approved a $250,000 agreement with Immigrant Defenders to provide immigration defense legal services to protect residents from deportation.
[Read: Santa Ana Renews Legal Defense Fund for Immigrants; Will Costa Mesa Follow?]
At Tuesday’s Anaheim City Council meeting, a couple of activists and residents called on city council members there to launch their own legal defense fund for residents and support and protect day laborers.
Officials in Garden Grove have not considered supporting the lawsuit against the raids.
They also haven’t discussed allocating funds to support immigrant families impacted by the deportation sweeps.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.