Santa Ana’s Ayuda sin Fronteras, or Help Without Borders, program will receive at least $100,000 in additional funding to continue providing emergency rental and utility assistance to residents affected by Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
The unanimous decision came during Tuesday’s Oct. 21 council meeting, after city staff reported the program’s funds were expected to be fully expended by the end of the month.
Launched in July, the program was initially allocated $100,000 to support individuals and families with low to moderate incomes who face economic instability due to ICE actions, including raids. The one-time emergency assistance operates on a first-come, first-serve basis, offering short-term stability for eligible residents through one month of rent and up to $500 toward utility payments.
As of Oct. 21, 232 people from 109 households have received assistance.
To date, $89,273 has been approved for participating households, with an additional $10,726 pending in rental assistance for applicants, including families who experienced a sudden loss of income after a family breadwinner was detained or deported.
The council voted unanimously to allocate at least another $100,000 to the program, with Councilmember Phil Bacerra absent. City officials will consider contributing even more to the program after an updated report on the use of funds and family assistance is presented in 90 days. Then, additional allocations may be made based on community need.
A few speakers voiced support for the Ayuda sin Fronteras program during public comment, urging the council to allocate more funding to meet growing community needs amid a recent surge of “violent” ICE operations within the city.
“As you guys know, Sunday was awful, awful for our communities,” said Sandra De Anda, the director of legal policy and strategy at the Orange County Rapid Response Network.
De Anda described the ongoing raids as a “pandemic” and reported that over a dozen people had been detained in Santa Ana by federal officers conducting immigration enforcement over the weekend.
“Right now, we’re actually seeing special response teams from ICE in our communities with semi-automatic rifles and other tactical weapons,” De Anda said.
An ICE official did not immediately respond to comment about the operations described by De Anda.
Santa Ana Unified School District Board President Hector Bustos said the city program has provided critical support to district families facing detention, job loss and housing insecurity.
“Within our district alone, 67 applications were submitted, 49 were funded or withdrawn by the families themselves and 18 went underfunded simply because the resources ran out,” Bustos said. “We still have 22 more families that we’ve identified who didn’t even get to apply because these funds have been exhausted.”
Since late June, participating residents have reported heightened fears of engaging with landlords and employers, along with increased childcare and transportation costs, according to a staff report.
Over the summer, Mayor Valerie Amezcua and Councilmember David Penaloza proposed canceling several city events to reallocate $1 million toward the emergency fund, but the motion failed to gain enough council support before the July deadline.
“While the program provides housing and utility assistance to residents impacted by immigration enforcement, we could have done a lot more with a million dollars, and we could still be doing more,” said Amezcua, who recommended on Tuesday adding another $150,000 to $200,000 to the fund.
Santa Ana is one of several Orange County cities to establish emergency support funds for residents in response to federal immigration activities this year. Other cities include Anaheim, Fullerton and Costa Mesa.
Originally Published: October 22, 2025 at 3:47 PM PDT