What have anti-ICE protests in Orange County looked like?

Photo by Easton Clark, Photo Editor

Since last summer, those protesting the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Santa Ana have been met with rubber bullets and tear gas.

In 2026, incidents at anti-ICE protests are far from over — two men were blinded in one eye by federal agents in January.

Santa Ana police will soon be receiving a public hearing by the city council for their response to the initial demonstrations in June.

Protests over the last nine months have been sparked by large-scale ICE activity in the area. As part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans — and his stated goal to deport “maybe as many as 20 million” people from the country — ICE began mass raids and immigration sweeps in Los Angeles and Orange County last summer.

While a lot of the original protests were centralized in Santa Ana, they have since expanded countywide. Most OC cities have had some sort of anti-Trump, “No Kings” or anti-ICE protest, with smaller groups of counter-protestors also attending some of those events.

In late January, there were protests across the country billed as a “national shutdown” after ICE agents killed both Renee Nicole Good and Alex Peretti in Minneapolis. In the past month, there have been high school walkouts against ICE in many cities, and Orange saw its own version in early February.

Many protestors have recently been calling for the Senate to stop funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, largely because of the events in Minnesota and the agency’s perceived ineffectiveness.

The Panther has chronicled how protests have manifested in OC since June of last year.

Summer raids and protests

Protestors in Santa Ana blocking a federal vehicle during the height of protests last summer; Photo by Easton Clark, Photo Editor

Immigration raids in Los Angeles that started on June 6, 2025, made national headlines. Images of protestors and agents clashing became widespread as the Trump administration sent large swathes of ICE agents to Southern California. Things soon escalated, and Trump sent the National Guard to the area in an unprecedented move.

In OC, Santa Ana was a hotspot for immigration raids. Community groups — such as OC Rapid Response, Defense Santa Ana and the Peace and Freedom Party — called for rapid organizing leading to week-long anti-ICE demonstrations.

Two young protestors hold a Mexican flag up towards a wall of police officers; Photo by Easton Clark, Photo Editor

A protestor receives attention after getting sprayed with mace by federal agents; Photo by Easton Clark, Photo Editor

The response from the Santa Ana Police Department (SAPD) during the first week of summer protests has been called into question.

They fired rubber bullets and threw tear gas at peaceful protestors, and now the city council will be investigating if that was an appropriate response. Councilman Jonathan Hernandez told Voice of OC that SAPD were the agitators on the day, and most citizen accounts said the majority of people were acting in a nonviolent manner.

During the initial week of protests, the National Guard was called in to Southern California, and in Santa Ana, they were stationed by the Ronald Reagan Federal Building. Tanks rolled through downtown, but it did not deter demonstrators, who organized in front of the court building and continued to call for ICE to end its wide-ranging enforcement.

In Orange, there were groups of around 50 to 60 people who protested in The Circle during this time period.

Further into the summer, anti-ICE protests became more sporadic. This was also the beginning of the “No Kings” protests, which were more generally anti-Trump without fully focusing on a specific issue such as immigration enforcement.

The (relatively) silent period

There were a spate of protests across OC during the fall and early winter, but nothing beyond small gatherings here and there or regularly scheduled events.

Many groups organized events more broadly against Trump, not specifically targeted towards ICE. One of these groups, Indivisible Orange, continued protesting in Old Towne as they have done every Tuesday since the start of Trump’s second term.

ICE activity in the county did continue during this period, with deportation efforts seen in Anaheim, Orange and Santa Ana. Across California, deportations were higher in September than they were during the height of the raids in the summer. The reported number in June was 895, while it hit 1,723 in September; however, these numbers are most likely lower than the actual amounts due to undetailed or missing case information.

Despite the growth heading into fall, protests quelled.

ICE shootings in Santa Ana

Protests in OC picked back up after the surge of ICE activity in Minnesota made national news, especially after the homicide of Nicole Good. On Jan. 20, more than 1,000 protestors across six cities in the county protested against Trump’s deportations.

Earlier in the month, on Jan. 9, DHS clashed with organizers outside the federal building in Santa Ana. According to the LA Times, federal agents attempted to bring one protester — Skye Jones — into custody inside the building. Agents made the initial approach towards the members at the front of the gathering, and others attempted to intervene to stop them from detaining Jones.

This is when another protestor, Kaden Rummler, was shot in the eye and blinded by a projectile from federal agents. A pool of blood formed around him as he was on the ground, before an agent dragged him into the federal building as well.

In the article, the LA Times reported:

“Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary with the Department of Homeland Security, previously told The Times that a ‘mob of 60 rioters threw rocks, bottles and fireworks at law enforcement officers outside of the federal building.’”

On the same night, a second man was shot in the eye. In another article, The LA Times reported that Britain Rodriguez suffered similar blinding. Rodriguez said that he was standing at the bottom of the steps when agents fired less-lethal rounds at a group of protestors. His girlfriend also said that there was no warning given before the shots.

Now, Voice of OC is reporting that SAPD is disputing DHS’s account of the events, with officers describing the protestors as peaceful.

Walkouts take shape in OC

Late January demonstrations in Santa Ana shut down areas of downtown; Photo by Easton Clark, Photo Editor

Organizers of the nationwide “ICE Out” protests on Jan. 30 wanted participants to neither work nor make any purchases that day, the idea being that the economic force could spur legislative change. It was billed as a national shutdown.

As part of these protests, Santa Ana saw another large demonstration on its streets. Protestors gathered in Sasscer Park near the federal building. Organizers from different ethnic communities, as well as religious leaders, gave speeches to those in attendance to start the day.

Soon after, hundreds of students walked out of local high schools and joined the fray. This spurred a march through the streets of downtown Santa Ana, ultimately shutting down the entirety of 4th Street. After doing a few loops around the area, the group settled into a nearby plaza and began conducting speeches again.

Since then, battles over a Senate funding bill for DHS have headed towards a partial government shutdown. Whether or not these protests were the direct cause is hard to say, but Democrats have said the killings in Minnesota were a large reason for it.

High school students jog towards the middle of The Circle during ICE walkout protest; Photo by Easton Clark, Photo Editor

On Feb. 5, hundreds of students from nearby Orange High School (OHS) walked out of school in the middle of the day and marched towards the Orange Circle in protest against ICE.

Waving high were half-Mexico, half-U.S. flags. Students banged bucket drums and shouted anti-ICE phrases for almost an hour and a half before heading back towards the high school. One massive banner, held by four students, read “ICE OUT OF OC.”

Multiple OPD officers on the scene during the student-led walkout; Photo by Easton Clark, Photo Editor

Students spent their time in Old Towne peacefully, marching around The Circle and into the center, with honks of support coming from passing cars. Adults from the school were there, as they told The Panther, for the students' protection. Around 10 cops from the Orange Police Department showed up and claimed they were also there to keep the children safe.

It was the second walkout that students attempted this school year, but it drew a much larger crowd than the first, according to a staffer who was at the protest. There is no official number for how many showed up, but there were enough high schoolers to fill the entire circle.

Also on the scene was Indivisible Orange — whose protest turnouts have increased to between 50 and 60 members in recent weeks — but every adult from the organization we spoke to said that it was a 100% student-led walkout. There have been other school walkouts since.

Students take over The Circle during walkout protest; Photo by Easton Clark, Photo Editor

As anti-ICE protests have ebbed and flowed since last June, often depending on the national attention that immigration enforcement operations have received, it is to be seen what will unfold in the coming months. If tensions in Southern California hit similar levels to those in Minnesota, OC could be in for another wave of demonstrations.