Cost of responding to anti-ICE protests could rise for Santa Ana as budget gap looms

As Santa Ana reckons with a $16 million budget shortfall, the police and city officials on Tuesday reported that around $500,000 was spent responding to anti-ICE protests last summer — and that legal claims filed by protesters could push that cost even higher.

Around $400,000 of that amount was spent over four days last year — June 9, 10, 11 and 14 — when residents descended on the downtown area to protest ramped up immigration enforcement actions under the Trump administration.

City Attorney Sonia Carvalho said during Tuesday’s City Council meeting that the city has received four claims and one lawsuit stemming from the police department’s actions during the protests.

It’s unclear how much the claims could end up costing the city.

Call from the DOJ

Robert Rodriguez, Santa Ana’s police chief, said officers were sent out during the first day of protests after Carvalho received a call from the Department of Justice.

 ”It wasn't in a threatening manner, but it was basically if your department cannot provide the security that we need, then we're going to bring in federal resources,” she said. “We had a discussion about what that might look like in terms of safety for our community and what that would mean to people in our community.”

That’s when the police department made the decision to send in officers.

Rodriguez said the department was “ trying to create some distance between our community and the federal officers.”

How we got here

Last June, protesters took to the streets across Southern California calling out the ramped up immigration sweeps across the region. This prompted the Trump administration to send in the military and the National Guard, further inflaming tensions.

But the ensuing local police response during the protests also drew the ire of residents and community members, particularly in Los Angeles and Santa Ana.

One councilmember in Santa Ana, Johnathan Ryan Hernandez, said during a council meeting last year that police officers shot at him using rubber bullets during anti-ICE protests.