Hundreds gather to chastise Santa Ana City Council, mayor over response to anti-ICE protests

SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA (CN) — Hundreds of people packed Tuesday’s meeting of Santa Ana, California’s City Council meeting, where they asked local elected leaders to do more to protect immigrants in the city from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and stand with protesters demonstrating against them.

“Entire households in Santa Ana are afraid to step out. The raids are nothing short of racial profiling,” social worker Elizabeth Orozco Mendoza told the council. “And those in power let it happen.”

As speaker after speaker chastised their elected city council members, audience members cheered, held up protest signs like “National Guard and ICE out now!” and “ICE out of the courts” and jeered some council members, especially Mayor Valerie Amezcua.

Last week, a crowd of adults, teenagers, children and senior citizens assembled at the federal building in Santa Ana to protest the U.S. Customs and Enforcement raids around the majority Latino city in Orange County.

A few protesters tried to put their bodies between unmarked white vans to stop what was presumed to be full of people detained in ICE raids but most simply carried signs and expressed their horror at seeing friends, neighbors and family members swept off the streets.

Law enforcement, some wearing Homeland Security Investigations insignia, some just wearing patches that read “police” without any further identification, most wearing face masks, responded to some protesters inching onto federal property and some throwing half empty plastic water bottles by wildly firing volleys of tear gas, pepper balls and flash bangs at the crowd of hundreds.

Protesters would retreat from the base of the steps of the building, then come back minutes later with the tear gas still lingering in the air.

On June 9, Amezcua reportedly rebuked council members who attended the protests for “condoning this destruction” in a Facebook post.

A few days later, Amezcua told ABC 7 that she’s “not about photo ops. I’m not going to stand up and raise my arm and give my Chicano — you know — fist pump because it makes me look good. I don’t represent just one group of the community.”

Those comments were the subject of many residents’ ire at Tuesday’s meeting. Some promised to organize a recall of the mayor.

“I have multiple students, mind you I’m TK through five, who are not even returning next year because they’re so afraid. I have students who cannot be picked up by their parent during summer school because their parent is so afraid. They’re asking us ‘what can we do what can be done to help us?’ Us at the district are providing as much support as we can but they don’t feel the same support coming from, and I’m sorry miss mayor, but from you, and some of the council members here. I’d like to say you don’t just represent the South Coast area,” said Selina Gallegos, referring to a neighborhood in the city.

Gallegos said she works at the Santa Ana Unified School District.

“Just today I had witnessed a teacher walk a student out from Chavez [High School] to their car because there was alerts that ICE was around. There was never any notification from the city letting local neighborhoods themselves, the schools themselves. The principal came out, the teacher came out and walked that student,” she added. “That is a very scary sight to see. And the fact that there is no support coming from you says everything we need to know when this recall comes.”

At least a hundred locals had to wait outside of the full council chambers. As they watched a livestream of the meeting on a giant screen outside, cries of “boo!” and “fuera!,” which roughly translates to “get out!” could be heard whenever Amezcua spoke or appeared on screen.

“It feels like we’re being hunted because we’re Hispanic,” said Gyzeht Delgado, a local small business owner, about the ICE raids in Santa Ana and the continuing presence of the National Guard in the city.

She’s seen a decline in business because people are afraid to step outside, she added.

“We’re Americans, we pay taxes and follow the law,” Delgado said.

She attended last week’s protest, where she was arrested while trying to buy something to eat on her way home.

Federal law enforcement firing rubber bullets at kids throwing water bottles and fireworks, is not an appropriate response, she said.

“The City of Santa Ana fully supports and honors the right to peaceful assembly and free expression, and supports the community response to recent federal immigration actions. Many in our community have chosen to exercise their constitutional rights by gathering and expressing their views through peaceful demonstrations. We are grateful that the vast majority of participants over the past week have done so peacefully, and we encourage everyone to continue demonstrating in a respectful and nonviolent manner,” the city wrote in a press release on Tuesday.

The Santa Ana Police Department deployed last week in response to people launching fireworks at police, recklessly driving in the middle of large crowds, throwing rocks and bottles at officers and vandalizing property, the release continues. Over six days, 24 arrests were made.

“The City has the responsibility and mandate to ensure the safety of the public, and we will continue to monitor activities for the well-being of the community. We will not tolerate reckless criminal behavior that harm or have the potential to harm our community,” the press release continues.

The city said it does not participate or assist with ICE immigration enforcement activities.