Santa Ana's Resistance To ICE Has Financial Consequences

SANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — Activists are expecting a heated discussion at the council meeting Tuesday night after Santa Ana lost its contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to keep detainees at its city jail.

ICE recently canceled their contract with the city after council members decided to scale back the number of detainees it would hold for them.

Now City Councilman Jose Solorio wants to talk about getting that contract back.

He told the Orange County Register:

"We need to discuss the possible financial consequences of losing this federal contract and our willingness to explore options for continuing it short-term and long-term.  Many of our constituents don't want to lose the revenue or their opportunity to visit federal detainees locally."

It was a packed house at the city council chambers last December when people voiced their opinions about President Trump's plans to cut federal funding for sanctuary cities and how to handle the contract between the city jail and ice.

Now activists are mobilizing again, preparing to fight against the contract.

"We hope the council does not take any steps to try to resuscitate the immoral program," Hairo Cortes, of Orange County Immigrant Youth United, said. "As a city that is seeking to become a sanctuary — a safe place to its immigrant residents — this is sort of in direct opposition right to those goals and those principles and those values."

Santa Ana Police say there are around 100 employees that work at the jail.

It's unclear at this point how many employees could be impacted if the jail closes.