COSTA MESA, Calif. — The Costa Mesa City Council last week approved several measures that position the city legally and financially against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
The council voted to donate $100,000 in taxpayer funds to a local nonprofit that supports families hiding from ICE agents. It also directed city staff to explore whether Costa Mesa should join a broader lawsuit, which Santa Ana and Anaheim recently joined, challenging some ICE enforcement actions in Southern California.
That lawsuit, led by Los Angeles, prompted a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order barring ICE from detaining individuals in Southern California solely based on their language or job. The Trump administration is appealing the decision.
The council adopted a more aggressive stance after facing criticism from residents that the city wasn’t doing enough to combat ICE’s enforcement actions in Costa Mesa, instead focusing on symbolic measures.
“What you have before you are just resolutions. What we need are real policy changes,” Roberto Herrera of the nonprofit Resilience Orange County told council members, according to the Los Angeles Times. “The city needs to invest money and dollars to this cause.”
At last month’s meeting, the Costa Mesa City Council discussed a resolution calling for a ban on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wearing masks during enforcement actions. The proposal drew a heated crowd of both supporters and opponents of ICE and former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
“This is the same city that was arresting people for refusing to wear masks during COVID,” a Trump supporter waving a U.S. flag said at the meeting, according to a video posted on X, drawing applause.
The crowd of attendees at last week’s meeting was not as heated.
The $100,000 donation will go to Equality for All, a coalition of local churches. The move comes as the city faces a $3.6 million budget shortfall announced earlier this year. City leaders recently postponed $2.9 million in planned infrastructure spending to help close the gap.
The council also approved a resolution backing Senate Bill 805, recently introduced in the California Legislature, which seeks to limit bounty hunters from assisting ICE with arrests.
The vote was 5-0, with Councilmembers Mike Buley and Jeff Pettis absent. Councilmembers Arlis Reynolds and Andrea Marr, along with Mayor Pro Tem Manuel Chavez, placed the discussion on the agenda.
The decision also follows allegations from former City Manager Lori Ann Farrell Harrison, who was terminated earlier this year, that Mayor John Stephens engaged in conflicts of interest and in gender and racial discrimination against city employees.
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