In June of 2025, Santa Ana became an occupied city. The National Guard rolled in, turning our streets into militarized zones with tanks and rifles. Peaceful protestors were met with tear gas and rubber bullets. Downtown businesses, already struggling to recover from years of COVID’s economic hardship and disruptive OC Streetcar construction, were forced to shut down once again. Some were left empty as residents stayed home in fear, while others couldn’t open because employees were too afraid to come to work. The National Guard’s presence didn’t bring safety to our community — it brought chaos, fear, economic downturn, and lasting harm that still lingers months later.
Now, what happened here is happening across the country. President Donald Trump has sent the National Guard to cities like Memphis, Portland, and Chicago – cities he has dubbed as crime ridden, despite record low crime rates. While he calls these cities dangerous “war zones,” in truth, these deployments have little to do with fighting crime. They are about power — showing force, intimidating protestors, and silencing communities; especially those who have dared to stand up against ICE and to punish big cities in states that didn’t vote for him.
But here’s the hard truth: Trump’s deployments are being justified by exaggerations about crime rates that conservative, big city Democrats themselves have centered their election campaigns around. In San Francisco, fear-mongering around crime fueled the recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin, despite data showing crime was decreasing. In New York, Mayor Eric Adams made “crime” central to his campaigns; campaigning almost exclusively on increasing police budgets at the expense of everything else and ensuring headlines revolved on isolated incidents in the process. National news outlets have amplified these fears, running nonstop coverages of so-called “organized retail theft” waves that industry insiders themselves admit were exaggerated. These stories misinform the public — and created the very justification Trump now exploits to justify militarization.
In Santa Ana, conservative Democrats — Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua, Councilman Phil Bacerra, and Councilman David Penzaloza — have earned community disapproval and exploited “tough on crime” politics whose only solution is to invest in policing and punishment to avoid investing in other real drivers of safety like tenant protections, accessible childcare, and mental health care. They have fear-mongered about “high crime rates” and “dangerous parks and streets,” all while funneling more money into the police year after year. By leaning on fear instead of vision to guide their leadership, they have contributed to overall perceptions about crime that have now been exploited by the Trump Administration to send troops into our communities.
Santa Ana’s experience with the National Guard also highlights a deeper problem: the rising militarization of local police. While our community demanded accountability for abuses against protestors, the Santa Ana Police Department continued to expand its arsenal under state law Assembly Bill 481 (AB 481) — a law it violated for three straight years, from 2022-2025, by failing to report its military equipment. Year after year, more money flows into police budgets while real needs — housing and community programs — remain neglected. The line between federal troops on our streets and militarized local police grows thinner each year. Both send the same message: our government doesn’t trust us and it’s not here to protect us.
The cost of this approach is deadly. Immigrant and Latino communities — already under siege from ICE — now face not just intimidation, but real, fatal consequences. In Orange County, 39-year-old Ismael Ayala-Uribe died after being taken during a workplace raid in Huntington Beach, one of at least 20 people to die in ICE custody this year. Families are left devastated, and everyday life — from protests to community gatherings to shopping in La Cuatro — has been disrupted. Militarization costs lives.
But there is another way. We don’t have to accept a false choice between chaos and occupation. Leaders like Councilwoman Jessie Lopez, Councilman Johnathan Hernandez, and Mayor Pro Tem Benjamin Vazquez are showing what it means to put people first: investing in housing, healthcare, and jobs — the things that actually create safe, thriving communities. Chispa and our partners are fighting for this vision every day, because we know true safety comes from opportunity and dignity, not from fear, policing, or soldiers on our streets .Moderate Democrats now face a choice. Will they cling to the old ways — echoing right-wing talking points and reinforcing Trump’s narrative — or will they rise to meet this moment, reject fear politics, and build a progressive future rooted in real solutions? The answer will determine whether our communities are treated as battlegrounds or as homes worth investing in.
Santa Ana has already lived through the National Guard’s “solution.” We know what it looks like when leaders choose fear over hope. And we know we deserve better.
Bulmaro Vicente is policy and political director of Chispa, a Latino advocacy group in Orange County.
