Latest news with #Amezcua
Los Angeles Times
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
‘We are in a crisis': Santa Ana creates emergency fund for families harmed by ICE raids
As immigration raids continue to sweep through Santa Ana's car washes and Home Depot parking lots, spreading fear across the 77% Latino community, the city has created a $100,000 fund to help affected families cover basic necessities such as food, rent and utilities. The emergency fund was proposed by Mayor Valerie Amezcua, who said that the city is in a crisis because of ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. Santa Ana's sister city of Sahuayo in Michoacán, Mexico, has offered an additional $50,000 gift to assist with the initiative, she said. 'This is about the needs of our community,' Amezcua said at Tuesday's City Council meeting. 'If the father or mother who is the breadwinner is taken from their home, we do not want them to lose their residence.' The proposal marked a sharp shift for the mayor, who has faced calls to resign over her silence at the outset of President Trump's immigration crackdown in Southern California in early June. During last week's City Council meeting, more than a hundred frustrated residents flooded the public comment period, with many lambasting Amezcua for her response to immigration raids and related protests and criticizing the Santa Ana Police Department's use of force on demonstrators. Amezcua initially proposed creating a $1-million aid program by canceling eight city-sponsored events: Fourth of July, Chicano Heritage Festival, Fiestas Patrias, Noche de Altares, Tet Festival, Santa Ana Fun Run, Summer Movie Series and Juneteenth. 'We've seen in other cities where they have large events and ICE shows up. The troops are going through the parks and taking our families,' she said. 'I do not want to have any large events where they can come and harm or take our families.' But several council members opposed the idea, saying that it is important to continue celebrating the community's culture and noting that many of these events are months away, when ICE may not be as active. 'I'm not going to be supportive of defunding cultural events in the brownest city in Orange County and making the public choose between celebrating our culture or giving mutual aid,' said Councilmember Johnathan Hernandez. 'We should be doing both.' Hernandez pointed out that Santa Ana is the only city in the country to have a Chicano Heritage Festival celebrating the contributions of trailblazing journalist Ruben Salazar and the only city in Southern California to host a Fiestas Patrias celebrating Mexican independence. 'I don't think it is the right thing to defund these events.' The council then embarked on a heated hourlong debate over where to pull money to create the fund. Hernandez suggested using money allocated for vacant positions in the Santa Ana Police Department. Amezcua, however, pushed back, calling his proposal reckless. Then, Councilmember David Penaloza proposed taking the $1 million from the city's rainy day fund, but city staff explained that the process for pulling from the reserves would require additional meetings and votes. Ultimately, the council settled on a compromise solution, pulling 10% of funding from city-sponsored events to get a $100,000 emergency fund running immediately. Councilmember Thai Viet Phan, who came up with the motion, added that staff should report back in 90 days or sooner on the efficacy of the fund and suggestions to increase its budget. During the public comment period, many residents spoke about the pain and trauma ICE raids were continuing to inflict on Santa Ana's community. 'We have operations happening at our local car washes, at our local Home Depots, our vendors are being taken. A lot is happening all the time and our team has never seen this sort of pain and suffering from our Santa Ana residents,' said Sandra De Anda, a staff member at the Orange County Rapid Response Network, which helps track immigration raids and connect affected families with resources. De Anda said she conservatively estimates that 20 to 30 people are being detained a day. 'I can confidently tell you that because I work with a very committed team of ICE watchers, dispatchers, attorneys, clergy members, and most of us are volunteers,' she said. Maria Ceja, a lifelong Santa Ana resident, wrote a letter in support of the fund, asking that the city craft a dignified and accessible process for families to receive aid. 'It is most important that the City provides financial support as families navigate life after their loved one has been illegally taken without warning,' she wrote. 'We are seeing that many of our neighbors that have been kidnapped are the primary breadwinners of their family. This completely destabilizes their households, especially given the current state of our economy as we continue to see prices raise while wages stagnate.' Santa Ana's fund follows in the footsteps of nearby Anaheim, which created the Anaheim Contigo website last month, offering resources to families affected by immigration enforcement and providing emergency assistance grants through a partnership with the Anaheim Community Foundation. During the meeting, council members also approved a motion to submit a Freedom of Information Act request seeking records pertaining to recent ICE operations in Santa Ana as well as a resolution calling on Congress members representing Orange County to advocate for the removal of immigration agents and the National Guard from the city.
CBC
02-04-2025
- Health
- CBC
Living with celiac disease: When a single crumb can hurt you
When Ana Amezcua's family moved from Mexico to Canada in 2019, she never anticipated what would soon unfold with her daughter René, who was just five years old. "We noticed that within a week she started being always sick, like with a lot of fever, she couldn't stand up out of the bed, she lost a lot of weight," said Amezcua, who lives in Moncton. "We were going to the ER, but apparently she had nothing." That was when she remembered a TV show she had watched that talked about celiac disease and then everything started to make sense. Since moving to Canada, the family's diet included more wheat products, which would trigger someone who has celiac. Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition that primarily affects the small intestine when the person ingests gluten, which is found in wheat, barley and rye. Symptoms differ from person to person, according to the Celiac Disease Foundation. Some common symptoms include abdominal pain, cognitive impairment, migraines, fatigue, skin rash, joint pain and vomiting. According to the foundation, celiac can also lead to long-term health conditions, such as heart disease, liver failure, small bowel cancers and neurological symptoms. Amezcua began advocating for her daughter to get tested for celiac, and when she got the positive result, everything changed. Eating at home was safe. Amezcua, who is a certified chef, adapted her cooking to René's needs. But when she was anywhere else, there was always the fear that, even if a food appeared to be free of gluten, it could still be cross-contaminated, which could still cause extreme sickness. She said restaurants will often say they are celiac safe, but her daughter could still get sick if her food shares a countertop or frying pan with an item that contains gluten. Aislynn Slupsky, also a Moncton resident, has experienced similar challenges since her daughter, Kalina, was diagnosed at the age of four. She said her family had to get entirely new pots, pans, a toaster and even dedicated cutlery to ensure Kalina didn't get sick. WATCH | 'It didn't even cross our mind': Even Play-Doh is off limits for kids with celiac disease 1 day ago Duration 0:46 And when Kalina started school last year, that came with its own set of challenges. Slupsky found out that Play-Doh contains wheat and her daughter wouldn't be able to participate in the class activity, unless she found an alternative, because it was too risky if Kalina were to touch her mouth after playing. It was something that hadn't crossed her mind until she was confronted with the situation. While most people understand that people with celiac can't have bread products, many non-bread products also contain gluten, such as soy sauce, some types of vinegar, certain taco seasonings, some blue or cottage cheeses and many types of ice cream. Slupsky has had to tell Kalina not to take food from other people, but it's not always easy to explain why some kids can have things and she can't. "Some adults don't like to be told what to do, so imagine a five-year-old," she said. "She hasn't really known any difference, because, you know, she was four when it all started, but you can definitely see the frustration in her whenever friends get to participate and she doesn't." The isolation in school settings can be one of the hardest parts of having the disease — as was the case for Amber MacDonald when she was diagnosed with celiac in Grade 11. The 23-year-old Miramichi resident said that she often felt left out in school, as if she were a burden on her school and even society as a whole. After her diagnosis, MacDonald realized that grabbing a bite at the cafeteria or sharing a treat with her classmates was something she took for granted. She remembers a day that her school had a pancake breakfast as a way to promote school spirit. "To sit in a cafeteria surrounded by the entire school eating this pancake breakfast and being able to share in this moment altogether, and being one of the only ones sitting there without … it was just kind of an uncomfortable feeling." MacDonald said she hopes that the knowledge of celiac disease continues to grow, so people realize that being gluten-free isn't just a fad for those who suffer from celiac and they aren't being dramatic when it comes to cross-contamination. "I will live with this for the rest of my life, and the only way for me to live a life that is not in excruciating pain is to eat an entirely gluten-free diet," she said. "Having that one crumb or eating at that one restaurant that doesn't have great rules and regulations for cross-contamination would genuinely cause me weeks and weeks and weeks of pain and potentially long-term damage that might cause serious health issues down the road."
Los Angeles Times
06-02-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Santa Ana takes another look at sanctuary city advisory group
When Donald Trump first won election as president, Santa Ana responded in 2016 by declaring itself a 'sanctuary city' for undocumented immigrants. With Trump back in office and vowing to carry out the 'largest deportation operation in American history,' Santa Ana remains Orange County's only such city. On Tuesday, Santa Ana City Council debated what to do next with a sanctuary city law from 2017 already on the books, rumors spreading about Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions and protests swelling the streets. Councilwoman Jessie Lopez asked for a discussion to consider directing City Manager Alvaro Nuñez to reconvene a Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group within a month. 'The question before us is simple,' she said. 'Will this council uphold and implement the law that is already in place?' In her item report, Lopez noted that the group hadn't met since 2020. 'I believe that technical expertise can be added to the group,' she said. 'This is one small way that we can directly have a positive impact on our community.' Mayor Valerie Amezcua took the opportunity to affirm her support of Santa Ana as a sanctuary city, particularly because an Orange County news site suggested without evidence that she may be collaborating with ICE in violation of the city's sanctuary law. 'Do I support ICE coming in here and conducting raids in our community? No, I do not,' Amezcua said. 'Am I working with them? No, I am not, and I never have.' Regarding reconvening the advisory group, she asked Nuñez and City Atty. Sonia Carvalho if it ever existed in an official capacity in the first place. 'I could not find an advisory group that had been created,' Amezcua said. 'Can somebody please enlighten us? Was there an advisory group?' Nuñez noted that his office was still researching the question but didn't have any policy reports to indicate a formal advisory group existed. Carvalho also couldn't provide an affirmative answer. Lopez turned to conversations she had with attorneys who were a part of the process. 'Part of the reason why staff can't find anything is because of all of the turnover in the city manager's office,' Lopez claimed. Amezcua argued that the immigrant backgrounds of key city staff rendered an advisory group no longer necessary. Santa Ana Police Chief Robert Rodriguez was formerly undocumented. Nuñez is the son of a bracero worker. Newly appointed Assistant City Manager Minh Thai is a Vietnamese refugee. 'This administration does not just advocate for immigrant protections, we embody them,' Amezcua said. Carvalho cautioned that if council members created a formal advisory group that meets regularly to bolster the city's sanctuary law, the state's open meeting laws would be applicable, which could dissuade undocumented immigrants from working with it out of fear. Councilman Johnathan Hernandez backed forming the advisory group and having it meet every 30 days. 'I want to ensure that we are working across the table and that we're bringing every single service provider who is vested in protecting immigrant families, whether that be Resilience OC, whether that be [the] ACLU, Orange County Rapid Response Network, VietRise, the Harbor Institute [for Immigrant and Economic Justice], the Public Law Center,' he said. 'We need all hands on deck right now.' But Councilwoman Thai Viet Phan aired questions about outside groups coming in. 'We also don't know what their policies are for ensuring data collection confidentiality,' she said. 'They might not have attorney-client privilege with our city attorney's office.' The hourlong deliberation ended with Nuñez affirming to return to council with an approach that ensures the sanctuary law is fully complied with.
CBS News
31-01-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Santa Ana Unified considers laying off hundreds after $187 million budget shortfall
The Santa Unified School District is considering hundreds of layoffs amid a budget shortfall and declining enrollment. According to Mayor Valerie Amezcua, the district may lay off 280 teachers and counselors to address its $187 million budget shortfall. It partially attributes the layoffs and budget shortfall to a 5% drop in enrollment caused by declining birth rates and higher cost of living in Orange County, including Santa Ana. "As elected officials representing the City of Santa Ana, we believe declining enrollment at Santa Ana Unified can, in part, be explained by recognizing that the city's population has steadily decreased over the past two decades," Amezcua wrote in a statement. From 2000 to 2020, Santa Ana's population decreased by 28,000 people, according to Census data. Additionally, Orange County saw a 0.9% decline in enrollment between the past two school years. Amezcua also attributed the drop in enrollment to parents choosing different educational options since "Santa Ana Unified does not meet their needs." "In today's educational landscape, where families have more choices, more students are opting for other available pathways," Amezcua wrote. She said parents are concerned about the "lack of quality education in core subjects" and bullying at Santa Ana campuses. She urged the district to prioritize core subjects and implement personalized learning plans for students, while also engaging with teachers and parents to understand why they opted out of the district.
