“People heard about ICE being in our city. We haven’t actually confirmed any of that, and if they were in our city, they don’t always report, or don’t have an obligation to report to local municipalities that they’re in our city.”
That’s what Police Chief Robert Rodriguez said when Mayor Valerie Amezcua asked him at the Feb. 4 city council meeting point blank if Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were active in Santa Ana – OC’s only Sanctuary City.
“But we haven’t seen them conducting any type of raids,” Amezcua followed up.
“I haven’t seen them, no. No we haven’t,” Rodriguez responded.
City Manager Alvaro Nuñez told officials that any time they hear rumors about ICE agents operating in Santa Ana they check in with Rodriguez.
“We checked with the Chief of Police to confirm so that they’re aware and so we can notify folks. As of today, nothing yet,” Nuñez said.
Nuñez and Rodriguez’s reassurances came amid heightened fear across Santa Ana and Orange County of mass deportations and President Donald Trump’s federal immigration crackdown – roughly two weeks after Trump took office.
Now, questions are surfacing as to whether Rodriguez and Nuñez were telling the truth after Inadvertent published a story this week revealing that federal immigration agents have advised the police department dozens of times that they would be in Santa Ana.
On Monday, Ben Camacho published a story on Inadvertent that Immigration and Customs Enforcement/the Department of Homeland Security notified the Santa Ana Police Department that they were going to be within city limits at least 42 times since January 20 based on public records he obtained.
On Tuesday, Santa Ana officials provided the Voice of OC the same records – a spreadsheet – given to Camacho, showing that by Feb. 4 federal immigration agents had reached out four times to the department related to enforcement actions in the city – when Rodriguez publicly told council members there wasn’t any immigration enforcement.
The spreadsheet was provided to the Voice of OC less than two hours before Tuesday’s city council meeting was expected to start. The meeting can be livestreamed on YouTube.
Overall, there were 42 documented entries of ICE/Department of Homeland Security notifying Santa Ana officials that immigration officers would be visiting certain blocks and corners throughout the city from Jan. 22 to April 26, according to the spreadsheet reviewed by the Voice of OC.
Both Nuñez and Rodriguez as well as City Spokesman Paul Eakins did not respond to emailed questions Tuesday.
At the same Feb. 4 meeting, elected officials in Santa Ana publicly assured residents that they won’t cooperate with the federal immigration crackdown and police officers will not work with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers on what’s known as immigration detainers.
[Read: Will Santa Ana Relaunch an Advisory Group to Strengthen Immigration Protections?]
Two weeks later, Amezcua asked Nuñez and the police chief again if there had been any immigration enforcement in the city.
“I have not heard of any immigration issues in this city, is that correct?” Amezcua asked at the Feb. 18 council meeting.
“That is correct,” Rodriguez responded.
“I will probably ask that at every council meeting because I want to make sure that if there is something that we are made aware of it,” Amezcua said. “If something does come up I know you will contact us and let us know what’s going on.”
Two weeks after that, Amezcua asked again if there had been any immigration raids.
“Not to our knowledge, no,” Nuñez said at the March 4 meeting.
Amezcua asked again if there were any updates on ICE at the March 18 meeting and Rodriguez said there wasn’t any.
By March 18, Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Homeland agents had reached out to the police department at least 28 times, according to a spreadsheet provided by the city and reviewed by Voice of OC.
In a Monday interview, City Councilman Johnathan Hernandez said he would introduce an agenda item to direct the city manager’s office to be transparent about all Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the city and provide live updates on the city’s website.
“Having live, up-to-date information that is detailed the way that we’ve received it from ICE could bring a lot of families comfort during the time where they’re fearful,” said Hernandez who is running for State Assembly.
“I don’t see how anybody is going to have a challenge for information that has already been given to our city by a federal agency. It’s already public information to send the second they get it to us.”
Hernandez said he is concerned that the police department didn’t notify council members or the public about the alerts they got from federal immigration agents.
“What I’m recognizing is a police department that, unfortunately, has withheld pertinent information that could have saved people’s families and protected them during a time where people don’t feel safe,” he said.
“It is an action that will create more distrust between the department so I’m not happy that we’re finding out that the Santa Ana Police Department had 40 plus opportunities to engage in transparency and chose not to.”
“What this points out to me is that something needs to be addressed immediately,” Hernandez continued.
City Councilwoman Jessie Lopez – who is also running for state assembly – said it raised questions about whether or not the police department already knew about immigration enforcement agents activity in Santa Ana.
“What’s deeply troubling is the disingenuous way that the mayor addressed this issue publicly. PD already had access to this data. They knew what was going on, and she repeatedly asked during open council meetings whether ICE was in the city arresting people,” she said in a Monday phone interview.
“Now we are able to confirm that they were here, present dozens of times and the fact that this level of activity went unacknowledged, is alarming and my perspective is our residents were misled, and that’s unacceptable.”
Amezcua and Council members Thai Viet Phan and Phil Bacerra did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
City Councilman David Penaloza, who is also running for state assembly, said Tuesday he had not read the Inadvertent article and would get back to a reporter the following day.
Councilman Ben Vazquez said officials are going to have to have a conversation with the police chief.
“Hopefully, he’ll respond to it and I’m thinking he was thinking of raids versus individual (arrests), but when asked this question, he should be forthright with all the information he has,” Vazquez said in a Monday phone interview.
He also said he wants to make sure the city’s police oversight commission and residents have relevant information regarding federal immigration activity in Santa Ana
“I believe we need to support and make sure we take care of our residents,” he said, “if there is ICE in the neighborhood.”
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.