Santa Ana officials want the National Guard removed. But how?
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The California National Guard and its Humvees are no longer blocking vehicle traffic through 4th Street in downtown Santa Ana while protests against federal immigration sweeps have quieted down.
But as a legal battle between Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Trump administration ensues over who controls the troops, Santa Ana elected officials are seeking a way out from what some are calling a continued “occupation” of the only sanctuary city in Orange County.
Santa Ana Councilmember David Peñaloza penned a letter to Rep. Young Kim, a Republican, on June 18 apprising her of the situation, as her 40th congressional district does not include Santa Ana.
“The deployment of the National Guard into Santa Ana has terrified our families and paralyzed our downtown,” his letter stated. “Foot traffic has dried up. Stores are closing early. Families are staying home not because of crime, but because of intimidation from our own federal government.”
Swap meets, restaurants and other places at the heart of O.C.’s Latino community resemble ghost towns following aggressive federal immigration enforcement sweeps.
Peñaloza’s stern letter urged Kim to work with Rep. Lou Correa, a Democrat, whose 46th congressional district encompasses Santa Ana, in demanding the removal of the National Guard, which President Trump made the controversial move to mobilize in response to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids earlier this month.
“I made the letter very public because the whole point was to get other residents to reach out to her office,” Peñaloza told TimesOC. “Her chief of staff replied within a couple minutes, actually, with a simple ‘thank you.’”
In a statement to TimesOC, Kim claimed some protesters in Santa Ana had “escalated violence toward law enforcement” but peace was restored.
“Residents shouldn’t be living in fear, and ICE’s immigration efforts should be focused on finding illegal immigrants with criminal records in our communities and be in coordination with local law enforcement,” she said. “I have voiced our community’s concerns to the administration, and I will continue to work to fix our broken immigration system.”
Kim did not directly address the question of the National Guard’s presence.
Peñaloza confirmed that the strategy of reaching out to Kim arose out of a series of conference calls between local law enforcement, city officials and U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, a Trump appointee, over the troop presence around federal buildings in Santa Ana.
Though he did not attend any meetings himself, Peñaloza received word that Essayli suggested local officials reach out to Republican lawmakers if they wanted any progress on the National Guard.
A day before Peñaloza’s letter, Kim led a delegation of California Republican representatives in introducing a House resolution condemning “riots” in Los Angeles where the National Guard is predominately deployed.
“The riots escalated before the National Guard was sent in and were enabled by California’s soft-on-crime policies,” Kim claimed in a press release.
The resolution thanked the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, among other law enforcement agencies, which sent 138 staff to Los Angeles County in response to protests on June 8.
Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes confirmed his participation in meetings with Essayli about the National Guard’s presence closer to home.
“The National Guard’s role in demonstrations at the local level should be limited to the protection of federal buildings and assets,” Barnes told TimesOC. “National Guard members do not have the benefit of training alongside local law enforcement to prepare for managing demonstrations and ensure they remain safe and lawful. It proves difficult to blend resources and can result in a variable response.”
During a contentious, 10-hour long Santa Ana City Council meeting on June 17, Councilmember Thai Viet Phan addressed the National Guard issue directly with city officials.
“We had our officers go out there to secure the federal building… in an effort to prevent the National Guard from coming to Santa Ana,” Phan said.
Santa Ana Police Chief Robert Rodriguez affirmed the notion.
“The city cannot directly remove the National Guard,” City Atty. Sonia Carvalho added. “We don’t have the resources to make that happen, if the governor can’t make that happen.”
Santa Ana Councilmember Jessie Lopez credited protests in the city and demands made by the public at the council meeting for the National Guard’s diminished presence.
“We have to make sure that we are consistently vocalizing our dissent against the National Guard being in our community,” she told TimesOC. “We can send letters to representatives like Young Kim, but she has made it very clear through her actions that her loyalty lies — not with the [U.S.] Constitution, not with Californians — but with the MAGA-wing of her party.”
Lopez won’t be writing a letter to Kim’s office.
Narciso Barranco, a landscaper in Orange County, was detained by immigration officials in a violent altercation Saturday. Barranco is the father of three Marines.
As Santa Ana officials differ on how to achieve the same objective, downtown businesses continue to suffer.
Ana Laura Padilla co-owns Perla Mexican Cuisine, which is across the street from the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse on 4th Street, where troops remain on guard. She wonders how bored troops must be with next to nothing to do.
The restaurant has fallen on more idle times, itself.
“Business has dropped dramatically,” Padilla said. “It’s been very hard on my employees, too. We’ve had to cut a lot of hours because we’re not very busy.”
Padilla doesn’t believe the message has gotten out about the streets reopening as far as her customers are concerned.
“We’re not breaking even, at all,” she said.
Padilla recalled Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 during the pandemic when fencing and boarded up windows protected the federal building across the street from her restaurant. She said the National Guard response, this time, was “too much.”
Protests on June 9 led to 11 arrests with the National Guard stationed in downtown Santa Ana the following morning. But no protests have occurred in the city since at least June 22, according to Natalie Garcia, a Santa Ana police spokesperson.
Rep. Correa questions the rationale behind the troop deployment, especially as protests have cooled off and small businesses continue to be impacted.
“You deal with the facts,” Correa told TimesOC. “Everything has been relatively peaceful, especially for the past few days. What’s the purpose?”
His Congressional office remains focused on cases related to ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrests in his district, including Narciso Barranco, a landscaper punched by a masked federal agent in a viral video.
But Correa signaled a willingness to work with Kim on the National Guard issue.
“Having the National Guard is not the right call,” he said. “I’ll work with everyone that wants to work with me. I would love to work with her on this issue.”
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