Santa Ana police arrested two women on Wednesday after off-duty federal immigration agents accused them of following and blocking their vehicle, reigniting a dispute over whether monitoring ICE operations amounts to a crime.
Madison Crabill, 25, and Adilene Tonoco, 33, both Santa Ana residents who regularly track ICE activity in the area, were taken into custody after the agents said the pair tailed them, ran two red lights in pursuit, blocked their car, and shouted obscenities through a megaphone outside a police station. Santa Ana police said the agents had just finished an immigration operation in La Habra when they noticed a car following them.
On Thursday, family members, supporters and several city council members gathered outside the Santa Ana City Jail demanding the women’s release.
“We have always tried to teach our children right from wrong and I’ve never been prouder of my daughter standing for constitutional rights for all of us,” John Crabill, Madison’s father, told NBC 4.
Santa Ana Councilmember Jesse Lopez, cited by the Orange County Register, questioned the city’s use of police resources in the arrests.
“How willing is our political will under this council to hold the city manager and this workforce accountable? How many more times do we need to say from the dais that we don’t want our public resources being used in this disgusting way against our constituents?”
The attorney representing Crabill and Tonoco argued that observing ICE agents is constitutionally protected activity, not stalking, and that prosecutors would need to show the women posed a “credible threat” or had an “intent to harm” for the stalking charge to hold up.
Santa Ana is Orange County’s only sanctuary city, meaning local authorities decline to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. The arrests come about a week after another Santa Ana resident, Jackie Cordova, was surrounded and tackled by federal agents while conducting what she described as a routine early-morning ICE watch.
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