Two Santa Ana women who regularly monitor federal immigration raids in Orange County remained in jail Thursday after police arrested them on suspicion of stalking a pair of off-duty ICE agents, authorities said.<\/p>\n
Adeline Tonoco, 33, and Madison Crabill, 25, were arrested Wednesday afternoon on suspicion of stalking, obstructing a peace officer and criminal conspiracy, according to a spokeswoman from the Santa Ana Police Department.<\/p>\n
An attorney representing one of the women strongly disputed the allegations that any laws were broken since it\u2019s not illegal to monitor law enforcement activity without intent to cause harm.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday afternoon, the women allegedly trailed a black SUV with tinted windows from a federal building in Santa Ana until it came to a stop outside of Santa Ana Police Department headquarters, according to the police account.<\/p>\n
Around 1:30 p.m., agents inside the vehicle had already requested assistance from police, reporting the pair had followed them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe individuals blocked the agents\u2019 vehicle in an alley before continuing to follow them towards the SAPD station,\u201d said Natalie Garcia, a police spokesperson. \u201cWhile en route, they reportedly drove erratically and ran two red lights to maintain contact with the agents\u2019 vehicle.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the agents arrived in front of the station, the individuals parked directly behind them and used a megaphone to yell obscenities at them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia said the arrests followed an investigation prompted by safety concerns raised by the agents, who said they recognized the women from an immigration enforcement assignment earlier that day in La Habra. The agents by then were off duty. <\/p>\n
Sean Garcia-Leys, an attorney representing Tonoco, disputes the grounds for his client\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout a threat of harm, it\u2019s not stalking,\u201d he said. \u201cYou are allowed to follow somebody if you are not going to harm that person. In this case, the reason was to warn people about ICE activity and to monitor government officials. This doesn\u2019t come close to meeting the definition of stalking under the statute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tonoco volunteers with the OC Rapid Response Network, which documents local Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol activities. Crabill is an activist with Lucha Orange, a group that monitors The Home Depot for immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n
Casey Conway, OC Rapid Response Network\u2019s director of organizing and development, reviewed video one of the ICE watchers recorded of the encounter in the alley.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could not interpret any sense of the agents being blocked in at all from the video,\u201d Conway said. \u201cThe agents stepped out of their vehicle and meandered around. They were unmasked, but they had law enforcement belts. One of them, you can clearly see, had a gun.\u201d<\/p>\n
TimesOC has not reviewed the video. <\/p>\n