Santa Ana city employees are now barred from taking side jobs that involve arresting, detaining, transporting, or deporting people on behalf of ICE or any federal contractor assisting immigration enforcement. The Santa Ana City Council adopted the policy unanimously on Tuesday, making Orange County's only self-proclaimed sanctuary city the latest Southern California municipality to close what officials describe as a loophole in local sanctuary protections.
The new rule prohibits city workers from obtaining outside employment involving federal immigration enforcement activities, according to LAist. That covers not just direct enforcement work but jobs with private contractors that assist federal agencies in carrying out those duties. Notably, the policy does not prohibit outside jobs with the U.S. armed forces or the Department of Homeland Security itself, a carve-out that leaves some federal-adjacent work untouched even as the city tightens its stance on immigration enforcement specifically.
City officials framed the ordinance as a response to the actual and perceived conflicts of interest that arise when municipal employees moonlight for the same federal agencies their own residents fear. The ordinance states that such outside employment creates divided loyalties and undermines community trust, according to the same report. That language echoes the anxiety gripping a city where, per U.S. Census Bureau data, 76.6% of the roughly 310,000 residents identify as Hispanic or Latino and 41.8% were born outside the United States.
A City Still Shaken by Last Summer's Raids
ICE raids rattled Santa Ana last summer, sparking growing protests throughout the city, the report notes. Those tensions weren't new: in July 2025, the Santa Ana City Council had already unanimously passed resolutions demanding that federal representatives push for the removal of ICE and military personnel from the city, while also authorizing a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain federal records on local immigration operations, according to the City of Santa Ana.
Santa Ana's sanctuary status runs deep. The city first declared itself a sanctuary city by council resolution in December 2016 and formally codified the policy into law the following month, barring local police and city resources from assisting federal deportation efforts, according to Voice of OC. The city's history with federal immigration authorities is more complicated than that framework suggests, though. Until February 2017, the Santa Ana City Jail actually housed federal immigration detainees under a municipal contract with ICE, an arrangement that ended after community activism and a council vote to restrict the number of detention beds, as detailed by LAist.
Following Los Angeles' Lead
Santa Ana isn't the first city to take this step. Los Angeles adopted a similar policy in March, amending its Administrative Code to prohibit sworn and civilian municipal employees from holding outside jobs with federal agencies or contractors involved in civil immigration enforcement, including ICE, CBP, and DHS. When Los Angeles enacted its ban, city officials confirmed they had no evidence that any city employees were actually working side jobs in federal immigration enforcement, framing the measure as a proactive defense against aggressive federal recruitment rather than a response to known misconduct, according to LA Local.
The Santa Ana policy also mirrors a state-level proposal that would prohibit California peace officers from moonlighting as ICE agents statewide. That proposal, Assembly Bill 1537 from Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, would subject violators to decertification as peace officers and would also make officers' outside employment records accessible under the California Public Records Act, according to Courthouse News Service. A separate bill, Assembly Bill 1627 from Assemblymember Anamarie Ávila Farías, would go further still, permanently disqualifying anyone who worked for ICE between September 2025 and January 2029 from being hired in California as a public school teacher or local peace officer, per FOX 11 Los Angeles.
Part of a Broader Legal Offensive
Santa Ana's move fits into a wider pattern of state and local governments moving beyond traditional sanctuary policies toward closing administrative loopholes like secondary employment. California's foundational sanctuary law, the California Values Act known as SB 54, has prohibited state and local law enforcement from using public funds, property, or personnel to investigate, detain, or arrest people for federal civil immigration enforcement since it was enacted in October 2017, according to the ACLU of Southern California. More recently, in August, the California Legislature passed Senate Bill 747, the No Kings Act, creating a legal pathway for California residents to sue ICE, Border Patrol, and other federal officers in civil court for constitutional rights violations, according to the Office of Senator Scott Wiener.
The Santa Ana City Council will hold a second vote on the moonlighting policy at its next meeting, scheduled for 5 p.m. on October 6 at the council chamber at 22 Civic Center Plaza. The council meets twice a month, and meetings are livestreamed on the city's YouTube account, with residents able to participate remotely via Zoom.
