Accelerated immigration enforcement continues across the U.S. as protests against the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are erupting nationwide. New University spoke with UC Irvine students about their opinions of the recent anti-ICE protests.
Davis Garcia, a spring 2025 graduate of both political science and social policy and public service, participated in multiple Orange County protests, particularly those held in Santa Ana. To him, the protests are a way to get community members politically engaged.
“People now know what it means to speak up at a city council meeting. They know what it means to hold a representative accountable,” Garcia told New University. “They understand that their vote actually does matter now, because their vote will decide how the whole country gets ran, how their city will get ran, how their neighborhoods will get ran.”
During his time as a college student, Garcia has worked for congressional campaigns and government agencies, and has been a member of the Orange County Young Democrats. He also served as the most recent president of the UCI College Democrats.
Garcia has witnessed individuals he knows personally being separated from their parents, and has undocumented family members. He described the fear his community is currently experiencing.
“It’s affecting those around me at an incredible pace… because a lot of people around me are scared, a lot of people around me are losing family,” Garcia said.
“Even my sister, who’s currently serving in the Navy. My parents told me that apparently she called them crying one day saying that like, what if when she comes back from her time being deployed in Cambodia, what’s going to happen when she comes back and there’s nobody, you know?”
According to a press release by ICE, 66,463 undocumented individuals were arrested by the agency during President Trump’s first 100 days in office. The recent emphasis on immigration enforcement came after the Trump administration released an executive order back in January declaring undocumented immigrants in the U.S. as “threats to national security and public safety.”
A spring 2025 UCI graduate, who requested to remain anonymous, shared her beliefs that national immigration enforcement preserves national security.
“When you don’t enforce immigration law and you let in a lot of people and you don’t necessarily know their identity, you kind of run that risk of, ‘Are U.S. adversaries somehow getting their people in the country?’” she told New University.
She shared that, although she believes anti-ICE protests can foster a space for community among people with shared experiences, she believes that they also create unnecessary anxiety over potential ICE presence.
“It kind of generated, like, an environment of hyper-vigilance and fear, especially because it was right around the time of finals and graduation… I think that it’s not really right for protests to kind of generate this environment,” she said.
The student also attributes the protests to sudden policy shifts.
“Now that Trump is implementing these harsher rules for immigration, it’s kind of like the whiplash of policy change,” she said. “I think the reaction mirrors that whiplash.”
In a Santa Ana city council meeting held on June 17, protestors condemned Mayor Valerie Amezcua for her disapproval of anti-ICE demonstrations, demanded more transparency about ICE activity in the city and requested additional support for protestors. Many public comments included threats to vote Amezcua out of office.
Jaelynn Valez, an incoming fifth-year English student, thinks that the protests encourage undocumented and Hispanic communities to use their voices in the midst of the uncertainty created by current immigration policies.
“I was honestly pleased to see people speaking out because I think the oppression that these communities have been facing has been a long time coming,” Valez told New University. “It’s just now it’s right in our faces … so we can’t ignore it anymore.”
Valez — who has attended protests on UCI’s campus and in Santa Ana — noted that demonstrations in the community have grown in size and number, something she thinks points to a good use of democratic practice.
“I think it’s been really impactful because it shows that everybody actually does care and that it’s okay to care and it’s okay to use your voice because I think a lot of people get a little shy when it comes to speaking on politics,” she said.
Valez’s opinion of the significant relationship between protests and community building echoed those of previous interviewees.
“Something I noticed the most, was just the genuine sense of community that you can feel at the protest itself,” she said. “There’s kind of a mutual understanding amongst everyone gathered there that we’re all there for the same reason, and very quickly you make connections to people that are almost unspoken.”
Mariam Farag is an Assistant News Editor. She can be reached at msfarag@uci.edu.
Edited by Annia Pallares zur Nieden and Joshua Gonzales