{"id":142571,"date":"2026-01-21T03:55:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T03:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/142571\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T03:55:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T03:55:16","slug":"over-1000-oc-residents-protest-deportations-on-trumps-presidential-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/142571\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 1,000 OC Residents Protest Deportations on Trump\u2019s Presidential Anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 1,000 Orange County residents and students walked off jobs and out of classrooms as part of nationwide protests against President Donald Trump\u2019s policies\u00a0 \u2013 namely widespread deportation raids.<\/p>\n

The demonstrations, dubbed the Free America Walkout, were held across the country on Tuesday \u2013 the one year anniversary of Trump\u2019s inauguration and one day after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a holiday honoring USA\u2019s most renowned civil rights leader.<\/p>\n

In Orange County, protests took place in Brea<\/a>, Laguna Beach<\/a>, Orange<\/a>, Ladera Ranch<\/a>, UC Irvine<\/a>, Costa Mesa<\/a> and Laguna Woods<\/a>, according to the Free America Walkout website run by the Women\u2019s March movement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Around 120 people protested in Garden Grove Tuesday, including dozens of students at Pacifica High School who walked out of the classroom in opposition to the Trump administration\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dozens of Pacifica High School students walked out of their classrooms on Jan. 20, 2026. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Skye, a student, said students are upset with Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are upset that we\u2019re seeing our neighbors get taken without any due process. We feel scared. It\u2019s disrupting our education,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are taught to use our voice, so we\u2019re out here today to use it to peacefully demonstrate and hopefully show our community that we\u2019re here and we\u2019re supporting them.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added she hoped the protests would encourage people to vote in the upcoming midterm elections.<\/p>\n

\"\"Students take turns chanting into a megaphone during the Free America walkout on Jan. 20, 2026, in Garden Grove, in protest of President Donald Trump\u2019s presidency and in support of immigrant rights. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Another Pacifica High School student said Trump supports facism and hopes today\u2019s protests will encourage people to speak out against the president\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe expels people not because of citizenship, even though he claims it to be. He removes them because of the color of their skin,\u201d the student said. \u201cI am hoping that this motivates people to stand up and not be quiet and not be a bystander.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A young child attends the Garden Grove Free America Walkout on Jan. 20, 2026. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump held a news conference<\/a> listing off his accomplishments in the first year of his second term \u2013 pointing to his immigration policies and the deportations of undocumented immigrants, including violent criminals.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember when they used to say that the people that come into our country as immigrants are very nice people. They\u2019re wonderful people. They don\u2019t commit crime. No, they make our criminals look like babies. They make our Hells Angels look like the sweetest people on Earth,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Protestors line up with signs on the side of the road in Laguna Beach on Tuesday, Jan. 20. 2026. Credit: MAXIMO SANTANA, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

\u201cWe removed tens of thousands of illegal alien gang members, drug dealers, murderers, child predators, human traffickers, fraudsters and savage criminals. Why wouldn\u2019t you want them removed?\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 2.6 million undocumented immigrants have been removed from the U.S. through deportations and voluntary self departures in the first year, according to a Tuesday White House news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to detention data<\/a> from the Department of Homeland Security, a large majority of the 6,280 people detained in California have no criminal convictions \u2013 listed as \u201cNo ICE Threat\u201d in federal data.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of Dec. 26, the latest available data<\/a>, 69% of detainees have no criminal convictions, while 31% do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since the deportation raids started throughout OC in June, a host of immigration activists, legal observers, researchers, volunteers and legal representatives have told Voice of OC that abrupt changes to immigration policies are turning people into undocumented immigrants \u2013 revoking things like temporary protected status and nixing immigration court proceedings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

[Read: Orange County\u2019s Year on ICE<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\"\"Sisters Pardese Nicpown and Shiraz Nicpown attend the Jan. 20, 2026, Free America Walkout in Orange. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, around 200 people showed up to a protest outside Orange City Hall organized by Indivisible California 40<\/a> at its peak, according to organizers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Organizers also estimated 150 showing up for a demonstration in Ladera Ranch, 250 in Laguna Beach and over 300 in Brea \u2013 at their peak.<\/p>\n

Melvin Vernon, who helped facilitate the protest in Orange, said the protest is about stopping what he says is facism coming from the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad that we have to do this in America, but it\u2019s where we are right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re dealing with the atrocities of ICE, the kidnapping of people in our community, in Santa Ana\u00a0 \u2013 shooting folks in the eye \u2013 Renee Good, her death, and at least 30 other people that have lost their lives because of ICE and DHS.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Protesters gather in front of Orange City Hall during the Jan. 20, 2026, Free America walkout. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s walk outs come after Homeland Security officers shot two protesters with less lethal rounds and blinded each in one eye<\/a> earlier this month at a rally held in Santa Ana to protest the killing of Renee Nicole Good<\/a>, a mother in Minneapolis who was shot dead by an ICE agent.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rancho Mission Viejo resident Gabby Gutierrez standing with a sign to abolish ICE at the Ladera Ranch protests on Tuesday, Jan. 20. 2026. \u201cWhats happening, whether you like it or not affects everybody, every single day,\u201d said Gutierrez. Credit: MAXIMO SANTANA, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

\u201cICE is something that is terrorizing our community and we\u2019re not going to be the next Roosevelt Minneapolis<\/a>,\u201d said Kaitlyn, another Garden Grove student, pointing to Border Patrol agents clashing with school leaders at Roosevelt High School in Minnesota following Good\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n

\"\"Students stood on the corner near their school on Jan. 20, 2026, during the Free America Walkout. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Leslie Escobedo, a Los Alamitos resident who attended the walkout in Garden Grove, said she came to the protest because she couldn\u2019t stay at home and called Good\u2019s killing depressing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way they\u2019re treating immigrants \u2013\u00a0 it brings tears to my eyes. I\u2019m the granddaughter of immigrants,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s horrifying that people are getting shot. I don\u2019t think she was a threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Protesters gather in front of Orange City Hall during the Jan. 20, 2026, Free America walkout. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Nick Spain, an Orange resident and poet, compared ICE agents to the Gestapo police force of Nazi Germany during World War II \u2013 a war his father fought in when serving as a Navy fighter pilot in the Pacific Theater.<\/p>\n

\"\"Nick Spain, an Orange resident and poet speaks to protestors during the Free America Walkout on Jan. 20, 2026. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a kid I used to hear the adults pose a question to one another, why didn\u2019t the Germans do something earlier to keep the Nazi regime and Hitler out of power?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause most people don\u2019t think whatever is going on is going to impact them. It isn\u2019t meant for them. It\u2019s always the other,\u00a0 it\u2019s someone else, and you think that way and by the time it\u2019s you, you don\u2019t have any power left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spain adds that Trump\u2019s actions impact all Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a total lack of regard for policy and procedure and respect for the American people and, as you can tell, I\u2019m not going to stand here and take it without speaking up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kathleen Bowman, an Anaheim Hills resident, said she went to the Orange protest after attending a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event the day before because she felt she needed to take a stand.<\/p>\n

Bowman said Trump is destroying the country, calling his first year in office a disaster.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one is stopping it, and it has to change. If we allow this to go on, we will no longer have a democracy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Protestors line up with signs on the side of the road in Laguna Beach on Tuesday, Jan. 20. 2026. Credit: MAXIMO SANTANA, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

This month is not the first time ICE protesters have been injured in Santa Ana.<\/p>\n

Last summer in the wake of the deportation raids, police officers fired rubber bullets, projectiles and tear gas at protesters in downtown Santa Ana, sparking questions on how the city\u2019s police department handles protests.<\/p>\n

More than six months later, it\u2019s unclear whether the department has updated or adapted anything in response to those protests<\/p>\n

[Read: Santana: Were Santa Ana Police Justified in Firing On Peaceful Protesters?<\/a>]<\/p>\n

The walkouts aren\u2019t the only protests scheduled today.<\/p>\n

There was another demonstration in Downtown Santa Ana <\/a>at 6:30 p.m. to protest the first anniversary of the Trump administration taking office against deportations.<\/p>\n

\"\"Protesters gather outside the federal building on Jan. 20, 2026, on the anniversary of President Donald Trump\u2019s second-term inauguration to protest his administration. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Vange Oberschlake, another organizer with Indivisible California and a Vietnam era veteran, said the organization has been hosting weekly rallies in Orange in support of democracy since May and have been working with other groups to support families in need with mutual aid.<\/p>\n

\"\"Posters laid out for protesters to use at Laguna Beach on Tuesday, Jan. 20. 2026. Credit: MAXIMO SANTANA, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Oberschlake also said she took a vow at 18 to defend the constitution and that after Trump\u2019s inauguration last year she feels she has to honor that oath.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I realized my country is not perfect, and those founding documents have major problems, I believe in the power of transformation. I think we Americans can make our country what we want it to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

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