OC advocates prepare immigrant communities for Trump's new policies

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- Rumors of increased U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer activity in Orange County were inaccurate, said immigrant rights advocates and community organizers on Wednesday. Still, advocates and organizers are working to prepare immigrant communities and their allies to be on alert as President Donald Trump takes action on immigration policy.

One Orange County woman, who wanted to remain anonymous because of her immigration status, described the Trump administration as, "four years of uncertainty." She said it will be life without calm or peace.

She's not alone. According to the O.C. Rapid Response Network (OCRRN), Trump's executive orders on immigration have many concerned about mass deportations. Calls to the OCRRN hotline have increased over the past week with people reporting sightings of ICE officers.

"Of course, we did our due diligence to go to those places, those intersections, to confirm if ICE was there. As of now, we have not heard of any ICE enforcement action," OCRRN Coordinator Sandra De Anda said.

While ABC7 gathered interviews for this story, the OCRRN fielded several calls reporting ICE enforcement in two locations. Eyewitness News confirmed that was not the case - ICE was not there.

The OCRRN is made up of attorneys, nonprofits and individuals. It holds trainings that show how ICE operates in Orange County, and it informs people of their rights.

The OCRRN asks the community to be on alert, "taking photos, video, making sure that there's time stamps on what they provide us," De Anda said.

Among the executive orders Trump signed this week is one that seeks to end sanctuary city status in cities like Santa Ana.

"The sanctuary cities ordinance that we have in our code prohibits any public resources to be directed and to be in alignment with ICE agents," Santa Ana Councilwoman Jessie Lopez explained. "For example, our police department is not allowed to collaborate with them in any capacity."

The order threatens to cut federal funding to sanctuary cities -- just as Trump did during his first term in office. Annie Lai, a clinical professor of law at UC Irvine, expects to see several of these orders challenged in court, which happened in Trump's first term as well.

"Those attempts to cut off the flow of certain federal grants were also challenged in court, and many of them, those actions, were struck down," Lai said.

Last Tuesday, Acting Department of Homeland Secretary Benjamine Huffman made a change in policy for immigration arrests. He rescinded the sensitive locations memo, which remained in place during the first Trump administration and prohibited immigration arrests at once protected locations like schools, places of worship or hospitals.

"I can't predict the future, but I suspect it's going to be of like parents dropping off their kids from school, rather than ICE coming to a school and trying to round up the children," Lai said.

The Orange County woman who asked to remain anonymous said she wants Trump to consider the children. She has been living in Orange County since 1980 and has no pathway to legal status in the U.S.

Speaking in Spanish, she told Eyewitness News that if given the opportunity, she would tell the president to be a little humane. She would tell him to think about all those families and about the children who will suffer if they are separated from their parents.