The arrests of two women monitoring federal immigration agents in Santa Ana have sparked criticism from elected officials and community organizations, raising questions about constitutional protections for civilian observers and the relationship between local police and federal immigration authorities.

Madison Crabill, 25, and Adilene Tonoco, 33, both Santa Ana residents, were arrested Wednesday after following two off-duty federal agents to Santa Ana Police Department headquarters. Tonoco was released last night, and Crabill was taken to a nearby hospital because she requires daily insulin treatments, according to John Crabill, her father. As of Friday, October 16, she remains in a doctor’s care.

Police said the women were arrested on suspicion of stalking, resisting or obstructing a peace officer, and criminal conspiracy. Immigration advocates dispute the allegations, maintaining that the women were engaged in lawful observation of federal immigration enforcement activity.

According to police spokesperson Natalie Garcia, two off-duty federal agents requested assistance at approximately 1:26 pm after reporting that the women followed them from a federal building in Santa Ana.

The agents alleged that the women blocked their vehicle in an alley, drove erratically and ran two red lights while continuing to follow them toward police headquarters. Police said the women subsequently parked behind the agents’ vehicle and shouted obscenities through a megaphone. But Sean Garcia-Leys, executive director of the Peace and Justice Law Center and an attorney representing Tonoco, challenged the legal basis for the arrests.

At a press conference Thursday on the steps of the Santa Ana Police Dept., Garcia-Leys argued that following law enforcement officers to monitor their activities does not constitute stalking without the required threat of harm.

He said the women were attempting to alert residents to immigration enforcement activity and monitor government officials – work both Tonoco and Crabill had been doing for more than a year as participants in local immigrant advocacy organizations. Tonoco volunteers with the Orange County Rapid Response Network, which monitors federal immigration enforcement, while Crabill is involved with Lucha Orange, an organization that monitors possible immigration enforcement activity at Home Depot locations.

Casey Conway, organizing and development director for the Orange County Rapid Response Network, said that he reviewed video recorded by one of the women during the encounter in the alley. Conway said the footage did not appear to show the agents being blocked. Melissa Rios, an organizer with LUCHA Costa Mesa, separately said that the women maintained an appropriate distance behind the federal vehicle and did not interfere with its movement.

The conflicting accounts have not been independently resolved.

City officials question arrests

Santa Ana Councilwoman Jessie Lopez called for the women’s immediate release and questioned why local police responded to federal agents in a city that has declared itself a sanctuary for immigrants.

At the press conference, Lopez criticized the department’s response and argued that residents should be able to document federal enforcement activity without fear of retaliation.

“When Local police participate in actions that undermine trust and raise concerns about our civil liberties, our entire community needs to be concerned and alarmed,” said Lopez. “This is why my office is demanding answers from the city manager.”

Councilman Ben Vazquez also questioned the arrests, saying residents have a right to observe immigration enforcement operations. The controversy has renewed scrutiny of Santa Ana’s sanctuary city policies and California’s Values Act, commonly known as Senate Bill 54, which limits the use of state and local law enforcement resources for federal civil immigration enforcement.

Those restrictions do not generally prohibit local police from investigating alleged violations of state criminal law, even when federal agents report the suspected offenses. The central legal question is whether the women’s actions constituted criminal conduct or remained within the protections afforded to people observing law enforcement in public.

Vanesa Estrella, a Fullerton School Board Trustee, said she worked hard to restore trust in local government after Fullerton Police joined ICE in an action near a school in a Latino neighborhood.

“If law enforcement is working together to intimidate, entrap, or silence people exercising their constitutional rights, that is unacceptable, and we have to demand accountability now.”

Previous tensions with federal immigration enforcement

The arrests come amid longstanding controversy over Santa Ana police responses to demonstrations involving federal immigration authorities.

During protests outside the Santa Ana Federal Building in June 2025, Santa Ana Police and other local officers deployed less-lethal projectiles and chemical agents against demonstrators. An April 2026 presentation to the City Council disclosed that officers fired more than 200 less-lethal 40 mm projectiles, approximately 60 beanbag rounds and 35 chemical-agent munitions during four demonstrations. Twenty-seven protesters were arrested, and the police response cost the city nearly $400,000.

Police Chief Robert Rodriguez previously defended the department’s response to federal requests for assistance, arguing that refusing to intervene could result in additional federal personnel being deployed. Santa Ana police have maintained that they comply with state restrictions on participation in federal civil immigration enforcement.

The latest arrests also follow a separate incident involving immigration observer Jackie Cordova, who alleged that federal agents assaulted and detained her while she monitored their activities on October 8. She was shackled and detained for hours and released with no explanation and no charges.

Advocates demand investigation

Laborers United in Community Healing and Action (LUCHA) Costa Mesa, LUCHA Orange, the Orange County Rapid Response Network and the OC Indivisible Coalition demanded the women’s release, disclosure of communications between local police and federal agents, and an independent examination of the circumstances surrounding their arrests. The organizations have also alleged that federal agents may have engaged in swatting, a practice involving false reports intended to provoke an emergency police response.

“If that’s what happened here, and that is what evidence seems to lead to, Santa Ana Police arrested the wrong people,” said Garcia-Leys. “There’s no way that anyone could seriously believe that young women who have been engaged in this activity for months were suddenly a threat of harm to armed officers.”

The First Amendment generally protects the right to observe and record law enforcement officers performing official duties in public, subject to reasonable restrictions. However, those protections do not shield conduct that independently meets the elements of a criminal offense.

The police allegations and advocates’ competing accounts leave unresolved whether the women interfered with the agents’ vehicle, violated traffic laws or engaged in conduct meeting the legal definition of stalking.

It was not immediately clear whether prosecutors had formally filed charges.

The case has become another flashpoint in the debate over immigration enforcement, civilian oversight and public confidence in law enforcement in Orange County’s only sanctuary city.