Chilled by fear: ICE raids cast a pall over Orange County households, businesses

Los Angeles Times

4 hours ago

Good morning. It's Wednesday, June 25. I'm Carol Cormaci, bringing you this week's TimesOC newsletter with a look at some of the latest local news and events from around the county.
The stories about Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Orange County keep coming. There are reports of restaurants and other businesses struggling, either due to having decimated staffs or a precipitous drop in customers — including Latino American citizens who are afraid to set foot outside their homes lest they be whisked into vans by masked men and taken to a detention center.
If one of the goals of the Department of Homeland Security with the local ICE operation tactics is to sow fear, that mission has been accomplished, based on what TimesOC's Gabriel San Román reported from a day out in the field when he interviewed vendors at Anaheim Indoor Marketplace, day laborers on the street and a restaurateur in Santa Ana.
At the marketplace, where many stands have been shuttered and remaining operators are worried they won't be able to pay rent, one vendor who asked not to be identified despite the fact they are a U.S. citizen, acknowledged the somber mood hovering in the air and the dearth of customers.
'Hopefully, things will get better soon,' the vendor told the reporter. 'But right now, it seems like [ICE] is approaching anyone who is Latino.'
One incident that came to our attention last week is the experience of a Newport Beach attorney with a 'very American name,' as she said, who was walking in an O.C. park when she was detained by ICE agents, handcuffed and transported to a processing center.
'There was no warning, no rhyme or reason...,' the attorney told Douglas Sanders of the Daily Journal, who broke the story. '...Their goal was to get as many people as they could into their vans and go. Act fast, ask questions after the fact, and let the consequences be damned.' She said that about an hour and a half after she was hustled to the center she was told she could leave. She had to find her own way home, though.
The L.A. Times reported that Narciso Barranco, an immigrant whose son Alejandro says had recently applied to become a U.S. citizen, was working outside of a Santa Ana IHOP on Saturday when he was violently detained by several masked federal agents. The encounter was documented on a video that went viral showing Barranco being taken down, pinned and punched over and over again by the agents after he'd tried unsuccessfully to run away from them.
'The younger Barranco told The Times on Sunday that his father was pepper sprayed and beaten, and that his shoulder was dislocated,' the paper reported. 'After speaking with him Sunday at about 6 p.m., Barranco said his father had not received medical treatment, food or water after more than 24 hours in a detention facility in Los Angeles.'
There are, of course, two sides to the story. Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin of the Department of Homeland Security, alleged in a statement to The Times on Monday that the 48-year-old Barranco, whom she described as an 'illegal alien,' had 'swung a weed whacker directly at an agent's face and refused to comply with the agents' commands or requests to identify himself.' She also said the report of the dislocated shoulder was false.
Alejandro Barranco, 25, is a veteran of the U.S. Marines and his two younger brothers, Emanuel and José Luis Barranco, are active-duty members. He said Marines who have been deployed to protect federal property and ICE personnel probably have mixed feelings about the state of affairs, according to The Times.
'I know they love their country, they want to serve their country, but I'm also sure that they love their parents and they love their family members who are undocumented. I'm pretty sure we're all pushing for the same thing,' he said, 'which is a change in our system.'
• The former NFL kicker who in February was arrested for his act of civil disobedience during a Huntington Beach City Council meeting has decided he'll run for office. Activist Chris Kluwe, a Democrat, said last week he plans to campaign in the 2026 elections against current Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark, one of the 'MAGA-nificent 7' (in Tony Strickland's words) members of the H.B. City Council, to represent Assembly District 72. The district includes the cities of Aliso Viejo, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Newport Beach and Seal Beach.
• One of Van Der Mark's colleagues on the Huntington Beach City Council, Mayor Pat Burns, muttered an obscene epithet about a woman addressing the council during a meeting last week that was caught on a live microphone, generating an outcry. You can read about his latest gaffe and what led up to it in this Daily Pilot story.
• Given the unpredictable state of local and national economy, the Costa Mesa City Council last week agreed with four employee unions to a one-year contract, rather than a longer term, that will provide a total of $3.5 million in salary and benefit increases to city employees.
• Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing: At Home, a home goods retailer based in Texas that operates 260 stores in 40 states is shuttering several SoCal locations, including stores on El Camino Real in Tustin and on Harbor Boulevard in Costa Mesa as it tries to recover from a slowdown in sales and the effects of inflation and tariffs. Both Orange County locations are advertising a store closing sale on their websites.
• Kwong 'Tony' Chun Sit, 53, an Irvine animal trainer, was arrested last Thursday night on suspicion of animal cruelty and destruction of evidence in connection with the death of 11 dogs belonging to his clients, including nine whose bodies were recovered by police. He and his co-defendant, Tingfeng Liu, 23, of Vista, were arraigned Monday. Both pleaded not guilty.
• A large crowd surrounded and allegedly assaulted Santa Ana police officers who were trying to make an arrest of a man for drinking in public at around 2 a.m. Sunday. When the dust settled, five people were arrested and three officers were injured with cuts and abrasions, City News Service reported. The incident occurred on the 300 block of West Third Street, according to police.
• Artist and filmmaker Daniel Winn spent more than a year creating two large bronze and stainless steel sculptures that were stolen from an Anaheim Hills warehouse the weekend of June 14-15 and later recovered from a trailer parked on an Anaheim driveway last Friday, The Times reports. The sculptures, 'Icarus Within' and 'Quantum Mechanics: Homme,' are valued at a combined $2.1 million and there was concern the thief (or thieves) might sell them for scrap. Anaheim police say the case is still under investigation.
Four players from Newport Harbor High, past and present, helped the Team USA Junior National team earn a silver medal at the World Aquatics Under-20 World Championships in Croatia over the weekend. Team USA fell to Spain, 14-11, in the gold medal match on Saturday. Contributors for the U.S. included 2023 Sailors graduate Ben Liechty and 2024 alumnus Peter Castillo, both now at UCLA. Gavin Appeldorn, a 2024 graduate now at Princeton, and incoming Sailors senior Connor Ohl also contributed for Team USA. Ohl recently committed to Stanford. Costa Mesa native Landon Akerstrom, a Mater Dei graduate who now plays for UC San Diego, also helped the cause.
• In other water polo news, the Fischer sisters of Laguna Beach, Makenzie and Aria, were feted Friday in a USA water polo national team retirement ceremony. The team's coach, Adam Krikorian, told the Daily Pilot that Makenzie Fischer, who was a water polo standout at Laguna Beach High as well as Stanford, 'could literally be the best player in the world.' Her younger sister, Aria, played on three CIF championship teams at Laguna Beach and the Stanford team that captured three NCAA titles. Their dad, Erich Fischer, who still coaches at Laguna Beach, was a two-time national champion in water polo at Stanford and an Olympian in 1992.
• The Anaheim Ducks, who have not made it to the NHL playoffs for seven years, traded center Trevor Zegras to the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday for forward Ryan Poehling and the 45th overall pick in the upcoming draft, along with a fourth-round pick next season, the L.A. Times reports.
• Petey the Surf Dog, a 6-year-old Westie, won the small dog competition at the 28th annual Purina Pure Plan Incredible Dog Challenge Western Regionals for the second straight year on Friday in Huntington Beach. Koa, an 11-year-old Labrador from Carlsbad, was also a repeat winner in the large dog competition at the event.
• The life of the late Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson, who died June 11 at 82, was celebrated Saturday in Huntington Beach, where a paddle out ceremony was held in his memory. Dean Torrence of the surf -rock duo Jan and Dean was a featured speaker. He told the crowd that when he asked Wilson in 1963 if he could write a song for their use, he learned Wilson was working on two pieces that were contenders for the Beach Boys' next single, but they both sounded similar so he was willing to part with one. The songs were 'Surfin' U.S.A' and 'Surf City' and Wilson told Torrence he was leaning toward keeping 'Surfin' U.S.A' 'He said 'If you want the other song, you can finish it, I don't care,' so we took the song,' Torrence recalled. Eight weeks later, he said, 'Surf City' was the No. 1 song in the U.S.
• O.C. resident Christine Mulholland has started a new podcast called 'What's Going On?' that seeks to expand environmental consciousness. The Daily Pilot caught up with Mulholland for this feature story about the entrepreneur, who said she can trace her interest in nature back to when she was 5 and convinced the neighbhood kids to help her round up earthworms that had been displaced by rains and put them back into the turf where they belonged. Mulholland in 2012 co-founded an environmental and wildlife conservation nonprofit called Generation Awakening. In 2018, she put on a 5K 'Race Against Extinction' locally that raised more than $40,000 to protect endangered species and their habitats.
• The heroic efforts 100 years ago this month by famed Hawaiian swimmer and surfer Duke Kahanamoku and others who saved several lives when a fishing boat was toppled by waves in Corona del Mar were celebrated by Sherman Library & Gardens during a special fundraiser toward creating a bronze plaque commemorating the 'Great Rescue' of June 14, 1925.
• Works by Korean American artist Wendy Park are showcased in a solo exhibition 'Of Our Own' now through through July 19 at Various Small Fires OC gallery, 119 N. Prospect Ave., Tustin. It's open to the public Wednesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• This is the month of the annual Wurst Fest at Old World Biergarten in Huntington Beach, where guests can enjoy bratwurst, soft pretzels, sauerkraut and German beers this Saturday and Sunday. Check out this list of exotic sausages also offered while supplies last: smoked alligator andouille, smoked elk sausage with bacon and cheddar, smoked venison sausage with port wine and potato, duck and bacon sausage with jalapeño pepper, rattlesnake and rabbit with jalapeño pepper, rabbit and pork with leeks and carrots, and venison sausage with merlot blueberries. Saturday's hours are noon to 10 p.m., Sunday from noon to 7 p.m.
• Laguna Beach's storied Sawdust Art Festival opens this Friday and runs through Aug. 31. Now in its 59th year, the event will feature the works of more than 185 artists, live music and festival fun, according to organizers. There are special nights when Orange County residents with valid ID can enter at no charge. Visit the festival website to learn when residents of your city can take advantage of the offer. Scroll down the page to the 'Plan Your Visit' section to locate the schedule of dates and cities.
Until next Wednesday,Carol
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