Since May 2025 ICE has been kidnapping immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees at the Santa Ana Immigration Court in Santa Ana, CA. This is due to a Trump era policy change made in January 2025 that allows ICE to be present inside immigration courthouses where previously they have never been allowed before. 

In Orange County, the immigration court was one of the first places to be hit by ICE resulting in many people being detained and taken by ICE without allotting them their right to due process. This affects not only the people of Santa Ana but anyone in Orange County, the Inland Empire, and LA county who have to attend mandatory hearings for their immigration case, as they may be kidnapped by ICE upon showing up to their court hearing.

We urge the 22 judges of the Santa Ana Immigration Court to move all hearings online remotely to ensure the safety of all immigrants who need to attend mandatory hearings. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, this was the standard procedure, and under policy PM21-03, it is within the judge’s power to reinstate this policy and up to their own discretion.

ICE being allowed to detain community members without their due process is a threat to all of us, citizens and noncitizens alike. The constitution guarantees the rights to all “persons” not just citizens, so this is a direct violation of our constitution. Not only that, these arrests are decreasing the number of immigrants showing up to their hearings out of fear of being detained and sent to concentration camps such as Alligator Alcatraz. Not attending mandatory court hearings can significantly hurt immigrants’ cases as they can be sent a deportation order for this. 

These people being dragged away from our communities in handcuffs are contributing members of society; they are nurses, chefs, bus drivers and more. Our communities are hurting because of this callous approach to our immigrant community and if the goal is truly to get immigrants to achieve legal status “the right way” , then let them go to their hearings. 

Reverend Terry LePage from Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) said this at the press conference in Santa Ana to demand universal remote hearings, “I have been at this court since the second week of June and since that time I have seen a 74 year old grandma in handcuffs. I have seen a five year old child loaded into a van. I have seen over twenty abductions personally…The only way to restore trust in this court is to have hearings online!” 

The time to act is NOW! Please sign this petition to urge the judges they do the right and humane thing! This is a simple solution that could be easily implemented as it has been done before. Reinstate universal remote hearings now to allow immigrants the right and dignity to a safe hearing and due process.