Orange County Supervisors battled against themselves this week, with the panel’s three Democratic members narrowly voting down calls from the panel’s pair of Republican members to settle a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit centered around alleged noncitizen voting.
The county’s chief election official has refused to hand over certain unredacted data federal investigators are looking for – a move backed up by a narrow Democratic majority.
Federal immigration enforcement issues continue to dominate many city halls across Orange County as different cities take different stands on responding to heightened federal immigration sweeps across the region.
Santa Ana officials are renewing their immigration defense legal fund with $250,000, months into widespread deportation sweeps. Costa Mesa officials are also debating whether to follow suit and launch their own fund to protect immigrants in court.
Last week, Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento spearheaded the launch of the Orange County Liberty Fund, a $1.5 million aimed at helping nonprofits who assist immigrants navigating the legal system.
Meanwhile, Garden Grove officials this week decided to hold off on issuing a collective official response to the deportation sweeps amid consistent pressure from dozens of residents to take a stand against them and support immigrants.
Santa Ana leaders last week publicly acknowledged systemic failures – triggered by the city’s abrupt change of city manager and police chief – that ultimately led to a lack of public disclosure about the police department’s use of military equipment for the past two years.
Mandated disclosures this month also shed light on how some of the county’s biggest police departments across OC used their military grade weaponry, including county use of a fleet of drones made by a Chinese company blacklisted by the federal government.
Over in San Juan Capistrano, city leaders are considering a new 225-home residential project – trying to balance affordable housing and state housing mandates.
In Santa Ana, officials joined a growing list of Orange County cities toughening up regulation of problematic sober living homes amid complaints of open drug use, noise and other disturbances from neighboring residents.
Next week, Huntington Beach leaders are looking at signing a new deal for the Pacific Airshow that would shut off any direct revenue to the city for five years after they signed a settlement with the airshow operator two years ago and worked out most of the details behind closed doors.