Santa Ana City Council hears demands for ICE activity notifications and to hold SAPD accountable

Santa Ana, CA – On Tuesday, May 20, about 20 community members and activists filled the city council chambers to demand transparency from Santa Ana Police Department (SAPD) regarding alerts they have received from ICE. They also called for the jailing of Noe Rodriguez’s killers.

An article from journalist Ben Camacho published earlier this month revealed that SAPD received notifications from ICE/DHS that they would be present in the city at least 42 times since Trump’s inauguration. SAPD did not share this information with the public, despite being asked by council members and police oversight commissioners multiple times about communications with ICE. An item was presented at the city council meeting to implement a policy requiring SAPD to disclose these ICE alerts to residents.

Sandra DeAnda of the Orange County Rapid Response Network (OCRRN) opened public comment by talking about their ICE hotline, which can be reached at 714-881-1558 to report ICE or any suspicious immigration activity. She spoke about the lack of transparency from the city regarding ICE alerts.

DeAnda stated, “On February 4, on the same day that the mayor and chief shared they had not heard about ICE activity, a community member was detained at the McDonalds on McFadden and Standard and deported within hours.”

Diana Terreros of Community Service Organization Orange County (CSO OC) questioned the proposed timeline of 48 hours to release these notifications of ICE activity to the public. “That timeline should be useful to the residents of Santa Ana. If it needs to be immediate it should be immediate. It needs to be useful and not just used as a report to say ICE was here because that’s useless. Please implement a system that is actually useful for the immigrant community to try and avoid these racist detentions that are going on across the country.”

Erica Gonzalez of ChicanxsUnidxs stated, “It’s shocking but honestly no surprise that there were 42 reports of ICE activity in our city that were blatantly kept from the community.” She reminded the council that “Santa Ana is a city that is redefining what sanctuary means. The city council didn’t make the city what it is. Its residents did.”

Members of the community also demanded that SAPD officers Isaac Ibarra and Luis Casillas be jailed and held responsible for Noe Rodriguez’s killing. The officer’s names were obtained through a public records request made by CSO OC to support the family’s demands for justice and transparency.

Erika Armenta, wife of Noe Rodriguez and a CSO OC member, pointed out that Rodriguez was killed after receiving instructions in only English although he spoke only Spanish.

“Armenta stated, Officers Luis Casillas and Isaac Ibarra remain free and probably still patrolling our streets. This is not just, because we are in a sanctuary city where a large percentage of people speak only Spanish.” Armenta asked the council: “They described him as a Hispanic man in the phone calls. Why would they arrive and murder someone, giving them only instructions in English and shooting him before giving him a moment to understand what was happening?”

David Pulido of CSO OC pointed to the excessive number of rounds that were shot at Rodriguez. “Luis Casillas fired 18 rounds, every single round from his handgun, and then reloaded. And he lied about that later in his report. Isaac also lied; he said he fired eight rounds but he fired 11, three of them as he [Rodriguez] was falling.”

Matthew Compton of CSO OC stated, “These two officers took the life of a man and a husband and a father. I myself lost my father as a child. Let me tell you, it is something that a child should never have to go through. But because those two officers failed at their job, they failed to de-escalate and they failed to provide Spanish translation for a man who does not speak English, his children have to live that reality.”

Throughout the public comments, Mayor Valerie Amezcua, who has received over $200,000 from the Santa Ana Police Officers Association to fund her campaigns, looked at her constituents with disgust. Kanan Durham of Pride at the Pier called her out for this. “This is the first time I’ve spoken at Santa Ana city council meetings, I’m more often at Huntington Beach. It’s very concerning to me that I’ve seen you look at your constituents with the same level of contempt as I’ve seen from Mayor Pat Burns, the MAGA mayor in Huntington Beach.”

The council settled on having city staff report back within 45 days with answers to several questions that arose during the discussion of ICE alerts being given to residents. Only one council member commented on the killing of Noe Rodriguez, all others remained silent on the demands for justice from his family.

If you live in Orange County and are interested in CSO OC’s work fighting police crimes and deportations, they can be contacted by phone: (714) 367–6350, Instagram at cso.oc or email, orangecountycso@gmail.com.

#SantaAnaCA #CA #ImmigrantRights #CSOOC #OCRRN #Featured

Source: https://fightbacknews.org/santa-ana-city-council-hears-demands-for-ice-activity-notifications-and-to-hold?pk_campaign=rss-feed