Thousands of Orange County residents hit the streets Saturday and protested against the recent ICE sweeps that have upended immigrant communities throughout the county – especially in the Latino majority City of Santa Ana.

[Read: Orange County Braces For ICE]

City officials estimated at least 3,000 people gathered at La Palma Park in Anaheim at 4 p.m. for the “No Kings” protest, railing against the immigration enforcement tactics of Immigration and Customs Border officials, Department of Homeland Security officers and Customs and Border Patrol Agents during recent sweeps across OC.  

Organizers said that number swelled to 12,000 to 15,000 people later in the day.

Carolina Mendez, digital organizer for the Latino advocacy group, Mijente, told a large crowd that the pushback against the immigration sweeps is up to the county’s youth. 

“You’re qualified for leadership,” Mendez said, speaking in the middle of La Palma Park on a stage.

She said if anyone has helped their neighbors and community, “you’re qualified for leadership.” 

“We look out for each other because that’s what we do,” Mendez said. “We are not waiting, we are organizing.”

The La Palma Park protest was part of a nationwide series of “No Kings” demonstrations Saturday – the same day President Donald Trump held a military parade in D.C. to commemorate the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday.

It was also Trump’s 79th birthday. 

Orange County Sounds Off 

“In the 78 years of my life, I’ve never seen democracy threatened as much as it is today,” said U.S. Army Vietnam veteran Dan Cunha at the La Palma Park protest in Anaheim on Saturday. 

Locally, demonstrators also objected to what they say is an increasing crackdown on people who speak out against the Trump administration’s aggressive policies, along with the widening inequality gap. 

“It used to be the land of the free and it’s not anymore. It’s hard to see rights taken away from everyone. Our government is controlled by people who don’t care and I hope that us speaking out will increase awareness and that people take action. We used to be a country that cared about people” said Nicole at the La Palma protest.

Demonstrators in Anaheim lined Harbor Boulevard from La Palma Avenue to Carl Karcher Way – most people were holding signs chanting slogans along the sidewalk with nearby throngs of traffic honking horns and revving engines at stop lights. People also lined up on both sides of La Palma Avenue from Harbor to near Lemon Street. 

The protest at La Palma Park had organizers in safety jackets coordinating with each other to help people cross the street, medical tents and volunteers passing out water.

“We applaud the organizers for helping to keep a large amount of people along the street manageable,” Anaheim city spokesman Mike Lyster said in a Saturday text message. 

Lyster noted that there were no medical emergencies or any police response as of roughly 8 p.m. Saturday. 

In a follow up text message, Lyster said the crowd dwindled to about 100 people and police officials declared an unlawful assembly shortly after 9:30 p.m. after some people hurled objects at police officers.

Shortly after 9:45 p.m., Lyster said the crowd “largely dispersed without major incident.”

There were other “No Kings” protests throughout OC, like the ones held along the span of the Pacific Coast highway including Newport Beach and Huntington Beach at noon on Saturday.

Laura Oatman, one of the organizers of the Newport Beach demonstration and part of the Indivisible CA47 organization, said the purpose of the event was to unify people. 

“We are basically independents, Democrats, Republicans, decline to state,” Oatman said in a Saturday interview. “It doesn’t matter, we are all anti-fascism, we are all pro-democracy.”

Oatman said it was an incredible turnout of people especially for a majority Republican city like Newport Beach.

“We don’t want to vote for a new monarch to come in or a fascist dictator to come in and take over,” Oatman said. “So here we are.”

At a Huntington Beach “No Kings” protest by the pier that also saw a handful of pro-Trump demonstrators, Scott Friedland said as a Surf City local he was impressed by the turnout of protesters. 

“It’s great to see a great turnout for democracy, and it really doesn’t matter what side of the political spectrum that you’re on,” he said in an interview on June 14. “The one thing that you have to really face is this, do you want democracy in the United States, or do you want somebody who’s trying to take democracy and be a dictator?”

Huntington Beach police officials told Voice of OC they estimated about 2,700 people showed up to the demonstration.

Friedland said he understands the need for deporting undocumented criminals, but the current ICE raids happening in LA and Orange County were wrong.

“I think the way that it’s being handled is not good at all, and I think that’s why there’s a lot of resistance against it,” Friedland said. “Where are the gangsters that they’re claiming they’re capturing? Where’s the data and the evidence of the criminals that they’ve captured?”

The weekend’s demonstrations come after a week of protests in the heart of Orange County, where residents have been protesting the ICE sweeps daily since Monday in Downtown Santa Ana. 

ICE Sweeps Stir Fear in Orange County 

Numerous local elected officials, community leaders and activists have told Voice of OC this week that fear is running deep in immigrant communities – with some families losing their breadwinners in the sweeps, while others are too afraid to go to work. 

“There’s a lot of fear and frustration throughout our city right now,” Santa Ana City Councilman Phil Bacerra said in a Friday phone interview. 

His colleague, Councilman David Penaloza also said he’s seen a lot of fear in the community. 

Penaloza said his office – along with a host of community groups – has been teaching people their rights ahead of the immigration sweeps, yet he’s feeling frustrated because federal officials aren’t adhering to them. 

“People know about their rights. But what do we do when those rights are being ignored?” Penaloza said at the La Palma Park protest in Anaheim. 

He also said ICE and other federal agencies are engaging in racial profiling. 

“Because they look like me, they’re getting detained,” Penaloza said. 

OC Rapid Response Network program coordinator Sandra De Anda estimates that at least 50 people as of Thursday had been caught up in the recent sweeps.

She said a large number of people were arrested during their immigration check-ins and court hearings as they tried obtaining residency paperwork. 

De Anda, along with elected officials like Democratic Congressman Lou Correa, say working class immigrants without criminal records have been caught up in the sweeps – which expanded into Irvine earlier this week.

[Read: Orange County ICE Raids Expand into Irvine]

Democratic Rep. Derek Tran echoed similar remarks on Saturday, saying Trump promised to go after criminals in the deportation sweeps. 

“That’s not what we’re seeing,” Tran said in an interview before a brief news conference.  “They’re picking up anyone that’s a person of color and shipping them off to detention centers with no Congressional oversight.” 

Since Monday, De Anda said a host of local nonprofits, community leaders, activists and volunteers have banded together to form a mutual aid network for families impacted by the immigration raids. 

Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said she and other city officials have also been working to assist residents who can’t go to work during the sweeps, or families who lost the breadwinner in the federal immigration crackdown. 

“We have been working with nonprofits, religious leaders, and legal aid organizations to make sure our neighbors have access to the resources they so dearly need,” Aitken said in a Friday text message. 

Marisol Ramirez, OC Communities Organized for Responsible Development’s executive director, said OCCORD and many others have been working overtime to boost critical aid to impacted communities. 

OCCORD is also offering more direct, local help for Anaheim residents, she said. 

“We are working on our resource list and will be developing a hotline for Anaheim residents. We as well as others have been avidly promoting [the rapid response network] to donate as well as the OCJF (OC Justice Fund),” Ramirez said in a Saturday test message.  

During the Anaheim protest, OC Labor Federation Executive Director Gloria Alvarado told a crowd of people that ICE is targeting working class immigrants – a move that could hurt the economy. 

“Workers are not criminals!” Alvarado exclaimed to the crowd.

She also noted a shift in sentiment towards working class immigrants. 

“Not long ago, they called us essential,” Alvarado said, referring to the pandemic.  

“What happened?”