For over a year, families in Santa Ana and across OC have been reeling from the impacts of widespread deportation raids and President Donald Trump’s federal immigration crackdown that saw the National Guard occupy the streets of the city.
When the raids ramped up last year, some elected leaders in Santa Ana – OC’s only sanctuary city – faced scrutiny over their response and that of the city’s police department to ICE protests in June 2025 when officers fired bean bags, rubber bullets and threw tear gas at peaceful protestors after responding to a request for assistance from federal agent.
Last week, the arrest of two immigrant advocates by Santa Ana police officers while observing ICE agents in Santa Ana sparked renewed scrutiny over how cooperative local law enforcement are with federal immigration agents, amid what activists say is a surge in ICE activity.
On Tuesday, a host of residents and activists lambasted council members for nearly two hours at a contentious city council meeting mainly over the arrests of ICE observers including Santa Ana resident Madison Crabil.
Crabill recounted her arrest and that of her friend, Adilene Tonoco – the other advocate, saying the federal agents recorded their license plate and showed them their handcuffs as they were observing them.
“My charges were dropped, but Addie’s remain. Our unjust arrest is another example of intimidation designed to allow ICE’s illegal agenda to continue without oversight,” she told city officials Tuesday.
“I demand that Addy’s charges are dropped, that SAPD issue a public apology for our unjust arrest, that SAPD is held accountable for the incident, and that SAPD keeps their hands off of ice watchers.”
This November, there are a host of political candidates – including incumbents – who say they can do a better job at responding to ICE or expand on what the city has already done.
Protecting local immigrant families was one of the main questions for candidates at a Monday evening forum hosted by community groups Resilience OC, Esperanza Union de Inquilinos and Latino Health Access and moderated by Voice of OC’s Editor-In-Chief and Publisher Norberto Santana, Jr. at the Delhi Center.
Credit: IZABELLA ORTIZ, Voice of OC
The forum marked the latest Santa Ana candidate debate ahead of the November election with council candidates previously weighing on the city’s budget issues and responding to Voice of OC questions on Flock cameras.
While all candidates were invited to the debate, Ward 2 Candidate Selica Diaz, Ward 6 Candidate Giovanni Chavez, incumbents Mayor Valerie Amezcua and Councilman Phil Bacerra did not attend. Organizers said Diaz declined to attend due to a prior commitment.
None of them responded to requests for comment Wednesday.
Santa Ana Responds to ICE at a Glance.
In recent years, officials in Santa Ana were the first to roll out a legal aid fund to help protect residents from deportation and after immigration enforcement ramped up last year launched an aid fund to help families impacted by ICE raids.
Police officials have repeatedly contended they follow the state law that bars them from assisting federal immigration enforcement and earlier this year officials banned local police officers from moonlighting for ICE and other federal immigration enforcement agencies.
A request to create a notification policy to inform residents about ICE activity in Santa Ana last year was shelved by a majority of city council members despite officials in Anaheim regularly updating residents on enforcement actions on their city website.
Officials also debated bringing back the city’s sanctuary board, an advisory group made up of immigrant rights experts, to make recommendations to bolster the city’s sanctuary policy but it was never re-formed.
Mayoral Candidates on ICE
Dwayne Shipp, President of the OC Heritage Council and a Community Development commissioner, said city officials need to stand up for the residents.
“If we can all pull together and communicate with one another, when we have a situation of ICE or someone coming in, we can pull up and put roadblocks in the way and stop them and get in the way of them kidnapping our families,” he said at the forum.
Dan Shimell, an attorney, said local elected officials can legislate policies dictating how police officers can interact with ICE agents, adding the arrest of the immigrant advocates in Santa Ana last week shouldn’t have happened.
“The job of the police is not to support ICE, it’s to support (residents),” he said in Spanish at the forum. “Citizen or non-citizen – if you live here you pay taxes.”
“It’s not to work with ICE. It’s not just that we don’t support them in immigration raids – which we already don’t do – but we need to withhold support in other areas as well,” Shimell continued in English.
Following criticism over the arrest of the immigrant advocates, Amezcua – who didn’t attend the forum – said none of the current city council members condone ICE activity at this week’s city council meeting.
“We need immigration reform. We don’t need ICE on our streets. We don’t need ICE tearing our families apart. Nobody up here supports that,” she said publicly early Wednesday morning.
“This too shall pass, and we just need to do it together and work hard and protect our families.”
Last year, Amezcua faced demands for her resignation in the wake of the ICE protests last year after she put out a statement on social media questioning the futility of the protests and calling them “pure violence” and “destruction” of property and the city.
She also doubled down on those remarks in an ABC7 interview when she said she “is not about photo ops. I’m not going to stand up and raise my arm and give my Chicano – you know – fist pump because it makes me look good.”
Ward 2
Councilman Ben Vazquez said police officers shouldn’t stop advocates from observing ICE agents and officials should increase the legal defense fund.
“We need to make sure we have policies so the police are not bamboozled into working with ICE. They do not see it’s a rogue organization, and we cannot be part of this,” Vazquez said at the forum.
“We need to step up and increase that ICE immigration fund, including the support of family funds when their families are taken by ICE.”
Diaz, an immigrant from Mexico City, did not respond to a request for comment.
At a previous forum, she said she would like the city’s economic development to work with local businesses to bring customers back to downtown after ICE raids left some residents scared to leave their homes.
Ward 4
Sandra De Anda, Director of Policy for the OC Rapid Response Network who has been on the frontlines this past year amid the deportation raids, said officials need to revamp their sanctuary city policy.
“Reinstate the Santa Ana Sanctuary Board, restore the expert advisory board established under the city’s sanctuary ordinance to examine enforcement and its impacts on the residents’ health, safety, and well-being. I also want to expand access to habeas corpus petitions,” she said at the forum.
“We have an ICE field office. We need to get rid of it.”
Councilman Phil Bacerra, who didn’t attend the forum, said none of the city council supports ICE and the council has passed policies to help residents impacted by the raids.
“Nobody up here condones the abduction of our residents off our streets by masked individuals. Nobody on the council has ever voted to violate state law regarding the provision of data to federal immigration officials,” he said at this week’s city council meeting.
“In fact, all seven of us have voted on measures to help those in our city that have been impacted by federal immigration enforcement actions.”
Ward 6
Isuri Ramos, Chairwoman of the Planning Commission and Executive Director of Chispa, also said the city needs to bring back the sanctuary board and that she worked with De Anda to update the city’s policy on U-Visas – which provides temporary legal status and work authorization for victims of certain crimes who offer to help law enforcement.
“We need to make sure that we’re upholding our sanctuary city status proactively,” she said. “We need to ensure that our city is doing everything we can to protect our residents and removing any barriers that we might have.”
Chavez did not respond to a request for comment. At a previous forum, he said the city’s current aid funds for immigrants should be increased.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.
