Two Santa Ana women were arrested Wednesday after Santa Ana police accused them of stalking off-duty federal immigration agents, a case that has drawn protests and sharp questions for city leaders.
Madison Crabill, 25, and Adilene Tonoco, 33, both Santa Ana residents who regularly track ICE activity in the area, allegedly followed two off-duty agents and blocked their vehicle after the agents finished an immigration enforcement operation in La Habra. Police said the women also ran two red lights and used a megaphone to shout obscenities at the officers outside a police station.
On Thursday, family members, supporters and several Santa Ana city council members gathered outside the Santa Ana City Jail demanding the women’s release.
“We have always tried to teach our children right from wrong and I’ve never been prouder of my daughter standing for constitutional rights for all of us,” said John Crabill, Madison Crabill’s father, speaking to NBC 4.
Councilmember Jesse Lopez, as quoted by the Orange County Register, pressed city leadership over the matter.
“How willing is our political will under this council to hold the city manager and this workforce accountable? How many more times do we need to say from the dais that we don’t want our public resources being used in this disgusting way against our constituents?” Lopez said.
An attorney representing the two women said monitoring ICE agents in public is constitutionally protected activity and does not amount to stalking under the law. The attorney said a criminal stalking charge would require that the women posed a “credible threat” or showed “intent to harm.”
Santa Ana remains Orange County’s only sanctuary city, a status under which local officials decline to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts.
The arrests follow a similar incident about a week earlier, when another Santa Ana resident, Jackie Cordova, was surrounded and tackled by federal agents while conducting what she described as her routine early-morning ICE watch.
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