Orange County Supervisors are looking to bolster protections of children whose parents have been deported.
It comes as President Donald Trump and his administration have vowed to increase deportations and target sanctuary cities – like Santa Ana – and states, like California.
Since Trump’s inauguration in January, questions surfaced over just how cities and the county government will respond to federal deportation efforts.
Officials in Orange County’s largest cities – Anaheim, Irvine and Santa Ana – along with the Sheriff’s Department said law enforcement will follow state sanctuary law, which bars local law enforcement from honoring ICE detainer requests unless that person has been convicted of certain felonies.
[Read: How is Orange County Going to Handle Trump’s Immigration Crackdown?]
Now, a divided board of Orange County Supervisors on a 3-2 vote agreed to beef up protections of children whose parents could get caught up in the deportation sweeps.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Orange County Supervisors Doug Chaffee and Vicente Sarmiento – both Democrats – asked the county’s Social Services Agency to review how parents could keep their children out of foster care even if the parents are deported, along with the possible costs to the county the kids do end up in foster care.
“It acknowledges the existing rights they are already entitled to,” Sarmiento said at the meeting. “What we cannot allow is the rights of these children to be eroded because of the undocumented status of their parents.”
Supervisors Don Wagner and Janet Nguyen – both Republicans – voted against the plan, highlighting how there had not been one reported case of a child landing under social services care due to their parents being deported in at least a decade.
“Parents being arrested and unable to take care of their children happens frequently,” Wagner said. “The game is given away by that resolution that touches all these contentious things rather than just ask you do we have processes in place.”
The deciding vote was Supervisor Katrina Foley, a Democrat, who said families need to be made aware of what they can do to ensure their kids don’t go into the foster system.
Easing Immigration Fears in Orange County
The move comes amidst rising fears about the future of immigrants in Orange County – where about 967,000 foreign-born residents live, or about one-third of county residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
There’s an estimated 236,000 undocumented immigrants living in Orange County, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Sarmiento said that many school district officials have raised concerns to him over what they should do with students who have parents that could be deported, and what those impacts could be for the county.
“If they don’t, perfect,” Sarmiento said. “But in the event it does, these questions of capacity, of resources, staffing, staff time being spent, those are all questions I think are important for us to understand.”
The two options supervisors’ discussed were caregiver authorization affidavits or setting up an official guardianship for the children.
Senior county counsel Nicole Walsh noted that the affidavits were easier to set up, but guardianship offers more protection.
Walsh said the affidavit “allows you to enroll a child in school, possibly get them medical care and make other decisions on their behalf,” but noted “it’s not a formal legal guardianship.”
“If you have nothing else but a caregiver affidavit, that is better than nothing,” Walsh said.
In addition to declaring sanctuary city status, Santa Ana officials have maintained a legal defense fund since 2017 to help immigrant families without resources facing deportation.
Meanwhile, some officials in Anaheim, home to roughly 121,000 foreign-born residents, are looking to reassure residents that they won’t be asked about immigration status when contacting the city for services or calling the police department.
“We know that many in our community as we heard today are feeling fear,” Anaheim City Councilman Carlos Leon said at the March 4 council meeting.
“I’d like to agendize an item to reaffirm our status as a welcoming city – inform the public what that means, inform them about SB54 (state sanctuary law) as well as our approach to upholding our responsibility for public safety for all who live and visit our city,” Leon said.
While Anaheim isn’t a sanctuary city by local law like Santa Ana, previous city council members adopted a “welcoming city” approach in 2017 that states Anaheim welcomes everyone regardless of citizenship status and is “encouraged to participate fully in civic, economic and social life.”
Leon’s agenda request came after some Anaheim Union High School district students and local activists called on city officials to bolster immigrant protections at the city council meeting.
What Kinds of Immigrant Protections Should be Instituted?
Some local activists want explicit protections from Anaheim officials – similar to how Santa Ana declared itself a sanctuary city before it became state law.
“Our community needs concrete actions – specifically a stronger Welcoming Anaheim ordinance with robust protections for our immigrant neighbors who make up nearly 40% of our population,” said OC Communities for Responsible Development Executive Director, Marisol Ramirez, at the March 4 meeting.
Carolina Mendez – an organizer with the local activist group, Mijente – said city officials should bolster education for residents on their immigration rights much like activist groups are doing.
“We’re the ones right now,” Mendez said at the Mar. 4 meeting, “ensuring that our communities have the protections and access to knowledge that you should already be fighting for.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
