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Santa Ana City Council members publicly assured residents that city officials won’t cooperate with the federal immigration crackdowns amidst rising fears that undocumented people will be deported.
Officials made it clear Tuesday night that city police officers will not work with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers on what’s known as immigration detainers.
It comes as Huntington Beach moves in an opposite direction – vowing to work with ICE and suing the State of California over the statewide sanctuary law.
[Read: Huntington Beach Disregards California’s Sanctuary Laws, Directs Police to Work With ICE]
Santa Ana City Council members’ public reassurances come after Councilwoman Jessie Lopez asked her colleagues to relaunch a group made up of immigration rights organizations that former elected officials called for after they declared Santa Ana a Sanctuary City at the end of 2016.
[Read: Santa Ana Looks to Boost Immigrant Protections Amid Federal Crackdown]
City Manager Alvaro Nuñez said that he will work with the city attorney to ensure compliance with the sanctuary city ordinance and work with staff to bring back a proposal based on recommendations from council members.
“I’ll work with the city attorney to make sure one we comply with the ordinance as indicated, and two that we come up with an approach that sticks to, again, not just the actual language of the ordinance, but the spirit of the ordinance also,” Nuñez said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Will an Advisory Group be Formed?
It is unclear what exactly will come back as some officials raised concerns the group would be duplicative of other city commissions and worried that the group would be subject to open meeting laws and potentially put undocumented residents in danger.
Councilman Phil Bacerra said the city already has the Police Oversight Committee that could address fears sparked by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“Now in these very tumultuous times, our entire community, regardless of their immigration status, needs spaces and venues to provide meaningful input to our police and to this council and I’m very proud of the fact that we are providing those,” he said.
The city’s Police Oversight Committee hasn’t met since October – with three of their last meetings being cancelled.
Lopez pushed for her request and said a Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group made up of immigration rights experts is critical and the city won’t lose anything by having real data to inform their decision making.
“We must continue to work with trusted, experienced organizations that have been in this fight from the beginning, organizations that have proven to prioritize the needs of our residents,” Lopez said.
“This council has a duty, a moral and legal responsibility, to do everything in its power to protect our community and abide by the language in our ordinance.”
Mayor Valerie Amezcua, City Councilman David Penaloza, City Attorney Sonia Carvalho and Nuñez said they couldn’t find any information about the Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group and questioned if it ever existed.
Former Deputy City Manager Robert Cortez along with former Police Chief David Valentin scheduled meetings with the group in 2018, according to calendars on the city website.
Valentin’s February 2021 calendar also shows him meeting with the group.
“This group existed whether people knew about that or not,” Lopez said. “I think part of the reason why staff can’t find anything is because of all of the turnover in the city manager’s office.”
[Read: After City Hall Shakeup, Where Does Santa Ana City Hall Go From Here?]
Roberto Herrera, an organizer with Resilience OC who spoke in favor of the group’s return, also said he was a member of the Sanctuary Policy Advisory group at the meeting and his name is listed on group meetings with Cortez and Valentin.
Penaloza said other city committees can address immigration concerns.
Councilwoman Thai Viet Phan said organizations can share data directly with the city manager’s office that can help officials strengthen immigration policies without having a formal group.
Councilmembers Johnathan Hernandez and Ben Vazquez said they support formation of an advisory group made up of experts to help recommend policies based on data, but said the group should not oversee the city’s fund to help immigrants fight deportation in court.
Hernandez said the process to find a legal service provider for the fund should be open to bidders, adding that the advisory group and the fund should cover all undocumented communities.
“I want to ensure that we expand outreach to communities who are currently not being serviced before moving forward with any process that results in granting the current provider the full contract amount,” said Hernandez.
According to a new report by the Harbor Institute For Immigrant & Economic Justice, 91% of Vietnamese-born residents in the OC Sheriff Department’s custody were transferred to ICE – a rate higher than people born in other countries in the Sheriff’s custody.
The report found 228 people in the Sheriff’s custody were transferred to ICE last year, with 39% being from Mexico and 32% from Vietnam.
Protests, Rumors & ‘Know Your Rights’ Education
Tuesday’s meeting comes on the heels of recent protests across the country and in Southern California – including in Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Los Angeles in the past couple of days against Trump’s mass deportation plans.
It also comes after scores of students in Santa Ana walked out of their school Tuesday in protest amid a rumor that Mayor Valerie Amezcua was cooperating with ICE – something she denied at Tuesday’s meeting and on Facebook.
Fermin Leal, a spokesman for the Santa Ana Unified School District, said in a text message Tuesday that the district does not have a count for how many students walked out, but that it was a small percentage of middle school and high school students.
School district board members passed a resolution in December reaffirming that district staff will not cooperate with ICE.
Meanwhile, city officials say there has also been a host of rumors that Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids have been carried out in the city.
Police Chief Robert Rodriguez said they have not confirmed any of the alleged ICE sightings in Santa Ana as of Tuesday.
“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,” he said.
Amid the protests and rumors, officials and nonprofit organizations are holding events and putting out information to educate people on their rights as undocumented residents.
OC Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento is hosting a virtual community forum on Monday Feb. 10 from 5 to 6:30 p.m. about immigration rights with translation available in Spanish and Vietnamese.
Santa Ana officials have also launched a Know Your Rights section on the city’s website with general information on immigration rights along with links to immigration resources like the OC Rapid Response Network.
Will Other Local Law Enforcement Agencies Cooperate With ICE?
Last month, the Trump administration indicated the U.S. Department of Justice could probe local officials for not cooperating with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE).
Officials in Santa Ana, Anaheim, Irvine and Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes have said they will follow state law.
[Read: How is Orange County Going to Handle Trump’s Immigration Crackdown?]
At the state level, Attorney General Rob Bonta said at a news conference last month that the California Department of Justice will act if cities refuse to comply with the state’s Sanctuary Law – which forbids local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE.
Penaloza said that every one on the city council was “standing on the shoulders of immigrants” and that officials are committed to keeping and ensuring Santa Ana is a sanctuary city.
He also directed city staff and the police chief to continue the city’s sanctuary efforts .
“Stay the course.”
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.
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