Santa Ana considering policy to notify public of ICE presence within city limits

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- The Santa Ana City Council is considering a policy requiring its police department to notify the public about ICE and DHS's presence in the city.

Mia Verdin was among a couple of dozen people speaking at this week's city council meeting, asking for more transparency from police.

This comes after public records published by an independent journalist this month revealed that since January 20, the city's police department received at least 42 courtesy notifications from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security about their upcoming presence in Santa Ana.

Councilmember Johnathan Hernandez wants to introduce a policy to make these alerts public.

"It would be directing the city manager's office to work with the city attorney's office and the police department to ensure that any communications we receive from ICE is communicated to the public on a publicly available website within 48 hours," Hernandez said.

Among the concerns discussed Tuesday, the Chief of the Santa Ana Police Department, Robert Rodriguez, said he won't be involved in immigration enforcement, but wanted to ensure he was not impeding state or federal investigations and risking breaking the law.

"Based on what I've seen across the nation, specifically with the judge in Wisconsin, where she was arrested for obstructing. I would say I can see very similar circumstances for myself," Rodriguez said.

The council directed city staff to explore the legal implications of such an ordinance.

"Santa Ana is the only sanctuary city in Orange County. We are also a city that has an immigration defense fund, we have a know your rights to empower residents with information. This is the next step in ensuring that we're aligning ourselves with those commitments to protect our immigrant residents," Hernandez said.

Meanwhile, Verdin said too many people living here worried about running into immigration authorities in their own communities.

"We shouldn't have to live in fear, and there's an inherent responsibility to our elected leaders and our city that's supposed to keep us safe. You know, we're a sanctuary city, but we actually need to put the sanctuary in sanctuary city," Verdin said.

An update to the City Council with results of the legal research for such a policy change was expected by July.