Activists from the Community Services Organization (CSO) OC held a press conference in front of the courthouse today to demand that hearings be held online. The technology is readily available and was used extensively during COVID.

The agents’ aggressive tactics were highlighted during the press conference, where accounts surfaced of masked agents handcuffing and arresting a 74-year-old grandmother who arrived at court for an appointment. A five-year-old child is taken into custody and loaded into a van. Another man was arrested in spite of having a temporary protected immigration status. Another was asked to come in for an interview and was immediately detained and held for two days without food or water.

“I had not heard one accusation of criminal behavior to justify these abductions,” said Terry LaPage, Minister-at-Large at Irvine’s United Congregational Church. “

LaPage and other activists pointed out that these alleged injustices aren’t happening overseas in some backwater authoritarian state. They are happening at the Santa Ana Immigration Court in a nondescript office building on Dyer Rd.

“These judges can choose, now or in the near future, to be on the side of history where people fight back against racist structures, impulses, and legacies,” said James Spady of Chicanos Unidos in Santa Ana. “They can choose to be on that side and there’s a simple choice for them.
Put the hearings online.”

Stanton City Council member Donald Torres and Orange County 2nd District Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento were among those who attended the gathering, along with Irvine City Council member Kathleen Treseder.

Treseder highlighted the city’s reputation for safety, stating, “Irvine is peaceful. It’s the safest city in the United States. We don’t need help from ICE or Customs Border Patrol to make us more safe. If anything, they’ve made us much less safe by coming in and abducting our residents.”

Rain Mendoza, Co-chair of CSO’s Orange County Immigration Committee, described the difficult position faced by immigrants under the Trump Administration.

“Those immigrants appearing for mandatory hearings during the Trump Administration face an impossible choice,” said Rain Mendoza, Co-chair of CSO’s Orange County Immigration Committee. “They can appear in person and risk being detained without due process, or they can miss an appointment, which can result in an order of deportation.”

Other troubling concerns came up during the press conference, including immigration judges who short-circuit due process by dismissing cases, thereby delivering immigrants into the hands of waiting ICE agents.

“I think it’s very clear why they did this. The cruelty is the point,” said Treseder. “They want our folks to be afraid to follow the law.”

The press conference included participation from members of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) and and the Orange County Rapld Response Network.

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