Some Orange County residents going to immigration check-ins, working at car washes, landscaping houses or trying to score work as a day laborer have been getting caught up in the federal deportation sweeps.
It’s led organizers and residents scrambling on how to best protect the impacted immigrant communities throughout the county.
[Read: ICE Raids Spur Aid Network in Orange County]
Now, two Orange County state legislators have joined a contingent of four other Republican state lawmakers calling on President Donald Trump to direct the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency to focus the sweeps on criminals.
Overall, there’s 29 Republican members in the state legislature: 10 in the Senate and 19 in the Assembly.
Laguna Niguel’s Assemblywoman Laurie Davies and Newport Beach’s Assemblywoman Diane Dixon signed onto a letter from State Senator Suzette Martinez Valladeres, urging a change in deportation tactics.
“We are Republican legislators in California, and we support upholding the rule of law. Under the previous administration, over ten million illegal immigrants entered the United States — a reality that harms our communities, overwhelms government services, and hurts businesses and working Americans alike. The issue of immigration is complicated and divisive, but our goal is to reach solutions that both uphold the rule of law and reflect the fact that immigrants are essential to the fabric of America,” reads the June 27 letter, which Valladeres’ office made public on Monday.
The letter was also signed by state Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, Assemblyman Heath Flora and Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones.
The Republican lawmakers noted the current ICE raid tactics are hurting businesses.
“We have heard from employers in our districts that recent ICE raids are not only targeting undocumented workers, but also creating widespread fear among other employees, including those with legal immigration status. This fear is driving vital workers out of critical industries, taking California’s affordability crisis and making it even worse for our constituents,” reads the letter.
While Trump administration officials say they’re going after criminal immigrants, data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency paints a different picture.
A review of the latest available ICE data shows an overwhelming majority of people being held in California detention centers aren’t listed as a threat.
There’s 2,698 people that ICE listed as ”no ICE Threat Level” being held at ICE detention centers throughout California.
A total of 3,199 people are detained by ICE in the Golden State.
The California Republican lawmakers are also pushing for the immigration system to be overhauled.
“We also call on your leadership to modernize our immigration process to allow non-criminal undocumented immigrants with longstanding ties to our communities a path toward legal status. America needs a system that reflects both compassion and lawfulness — one that upholds sovereignty while recognizing the reality on the ground,” reads the letter, praising former President Ronald Reagan’s approach to immigration.
In 1986, Reagan signed a bill into law that granted amnesty to undocumented immigrants who had lived in the United States for at least four years before 1982, according to documents on the Reagan Presidential Library website.
It was later estimated that nearly 3 million people were granted amnesty by the law.
Meanwhile, a host of local elected officials have been railing against the ICE sweeps in Orange County since June 9.
“This is not the country – myself as an immigrant – came to,” said OC Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento at a Friday vigil held for landscaper Narciso Barranco, a Tustin resident who was violently arrested by ICE when he was cutting grass earlier this month.
“I wasn’t born here. I fought for my citizenship,” Sarmiento said, adding he had to go to “naturalization appointments, just like people are going to now and are getting abducted. Taken.”
Last week in Orange, City Councilwoman Ana Gutierrez said she saw a federal immigration sweep happen right in front of her house.
“I have never experienced nor witnessed such blatant racial profiling. I have never felt fear for being a Latina and being brown skinned. And I am very saddened that we are now having to bear witness to these types of events,” Gutierrez said at the June 24 council meeting.
She pushed to help create a resource page for Orange residents impacted by the raids, but failed to get enough support from her colleagues after division surfaced on the council.
[Read: Division Over ICE Raids Flares up in Orange]
At the same meeting, Orange Councilwoman Arianna Barrios said while federal policy normally isn’t something the city council weighs in on, it’s time to do something about the ICE raids.
“When it does come into our city, when we see people scared and really profiled in the way they have been and hurt because of the aggressive tactics, I do think that we have an obligation to speak out.”