ANAHEIM, Calif. – Protesters gathered in Anaheim on Friday to speak out against Vice President JD Vance and the Trump administration, as the VP is believed to be visiting Orange County with his family this weekend.
What we know:
The Vice President and his family are rumored to be on a visit to Orange County this weekend. Will O’Neill, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, told City News Service that the VP was in the area with his family.
The Vice Presidential motorcade was believed to have been seen in downtown Disney at the Grand Californian Hotel, with the area sealed off with tight security.
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Protesters gathered near Disney on Friday to speak out against Vance and President Donald Trump, particularly the administration’s immigration policy.
The backstory:
Vance’s visit comes just one day after massive ICE raids at two separate farms in Ventura County, with federal agents detaining approximately 200 people believed to be undocumented immigrants. One person is dead after those raids, others are critically injured, and some are still unaccounted for.
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Demonstrators and several local politicians have called immigration enforcement operations across the region unconstitutional, with the Department of Homeland Security maintaining that all of their operations have been by the book.
What they’re saying:
Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento told City News Service that he wouldn’t be opposed to meeting with Vance, but only if he were willing to discuss the concerns over the continued immigration operations.
Sarmiento said the raids are “terrorizing residents and shuttering our businesses and making people live in fear.”
After a massive ICE raid at Camarillo farms, one farmworker has died. More are reportedly critically injured, and more still are unaccounted for. All told, immigration agents arrested about 200 people.
Sarmiento said he considers some of the enforcement actions “constitutional abuses” as many of those arrested are “abducted” and then deported without any due process hearings.
Protesters in Anaheim on Friday made their message clear. They didn’t want Vance here.
“I would tell him to go home,” one protester told FOX 11. “Get the hell out of here. We don’t want him here.”
The Source: Information in this story is from City News Service, interviews with protesters in Anaheim, and previous FOX 11 reports.