santa ana

Until recently, no one would have mistaken Arianna Barrios for a wokosa.

The Orange city council member comes from O.C. Republican royalty. Her grandfather, Cruz, was a Mexican immigrant and civil rights pioneer who registered with the GOP in the late 1940s after Democratic leaders wouldn’t help him and other activists fight school segregation against Mexican American students in Orange County. Her second cousin, Steve Ambriz, was a rising GOP star serving on the Orange City Council when he was killed by wrong-way driver in 2006.

The 55-year-old has helped Republicans on policy and handled communications for the Orange County Taxpayers Assn. and the Richard Nixon Foundation. Friendly, smart, quick-witted and a total goodie-goodie, she corrected me last fall when I introduced her to my Chapman University history students as a Republican. To my surprise, the Orange native proclaimed that she has never been a Republican — she started out as a Democrat and is now an independent.

And that’s not the first surprise she’s sprung on me. Her recent rise as one of O.C.’s most vocal politicians opposing President Trump’s deportation machine has been unexpected — and welcome.

She called out her council colleagues in July for not approving a resolution that would have required federal immigration agents to remove their masks and wear IDs within city limits. She connects young activists to legal and financial resources and has participated in neighborhood patrols alerting people that la migra is coming. She has accompanied Orange residents to hearings at Adelanto’s immigration court and hosted a two-part video series for the civic affairs group Orange County Forum on how the U.S. got to this moment in immigration.

Why, Barrios has become so radicalized that she used the hash tag #brownwar throughout the summer and into the fall when posting immigration-related stories on Facebook. That stopped after her husband, an anti-Trump Republican, suggested it was a bit much.

You would expect this of a politician from an O.C. city with a progressive streak, like Santa Ana, Anaheim or even Laguna Woods. But not from Orange, whose city fathers have long cast it as a slice of small-town Americana free from big-city problems or national issues.

And definitely not from Barrios, whose demeanor is usually more baseball mom than strident activist.

“I’ve been asked multiple times, ‘What’s up with Arianna? This is not her,’” said Orange Councilmember Ana Gutierrez, who has seen ICE agents invade her street twice. “Well, when she cares about something, she’s loud.”

Working with Barrios on pro-immigrant actions is “like talking to a young person,” said 20-year-old Chapman student Bianey Chavez, who belongs to a local youth activist group. The two connected at a protest in their hometown’s picturesque Orange Circle. “It’s fresh air for someone of her age and power to be so open-minded and helpful.”

Anaheim Councilmember Natalie Rubalcava, who has known Barrios for over a decade, said she had “never heard Arianna speak on any issue like this in the past. But it’s great. Maybe she just felt empowered at this point. Maybe anger just boiled up in her, and she couldn’t be quiet anymore.”

That’s exactly what happened, Barrios told me over breakfast at a Mexican café in Old Towne.

The immigration raids that have rocked Orange County as hard as L.A. “just hit all of those buttons,” she said. Wearing a blouse decorated with orange poppies, the bespectacled Barrios looked every bit the polite pol that O.C. leaders had taken her to be. “Not only is it just patently unfair, it’s just so wrong. And it’s so inhumane.

“And one of the things that I can’t stand — and one of things I taught my kids — is if you see a kid being bullied, my expectation of you is that you go up to that kid and you go protect them.”

Councilmember Ariana Barrios holds up a vest and hat she bought from Amazon while arguing about the dangers of ICE imposters.

She credits what her father jokes is “an overactive sense of justice” to her grandparents, who ran a corner store in Santa Ana in the 1940s. Barrios Market became a meeting place for the families who helped organize the 1946 lawsuit that ended Mexican-only schools in California.

Their granddaughter didn’t know any of that history until her 20s, because her upbringing in 1980s Orange County was “like a John Hughes movie.”

“We didn’t even really think of ourselves really as, like, Hispanic — I mean, we all were, but it wasn’t the end-all be-all,” Barrios said. “We were all trying to be Valley girls.”

Living in Nacogdoches, Texas, for a few years in the 1990s “woke her up” to anti-Latino racism. But after returning home to find county and state officials passing anti-immigrant laws, she didn’t join the resistance, as many Latinos of that era did. Instead, Barrios focused on starting on her career in communications and later raising two sons.

“I remember even having my own stereotypical thoughts about [illegal immigration], not really understanding what the experience was, how people got here,” she said.

Things began to change as Barrios worked for school districts “making sure that kids had access. I didn’t care about their status.” It became personal once she was appointed to the Rancho Santiago Community College District Board of Trustees in 2011 and met refugees as well as recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which grants a reprieve from deportation to some immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. She hired some at her PR firm.

The council member brought up the 1986 immigration amnesty that Ronald Reagan signed and an unsuccessful 2001 bill co-sponsored by the late U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that would have created a pathway to citizenship for people who came to this country without papers as minors.

“That’s what’s so odd about where we are right now,” Barrios said. “The two biggest programs, to get people to protected status and to legal resident status, came out from under Republicans.”

After winning another four-year term in 2024, Barrios figured she’d spend her time trying to fix Orange’s fiscal crisis, especially because she thought “so much of what [Trump] was promising on immigration was rhetoric.”

An onslaught of federal immigration raids in the L.A. area starting in June made her realize things would be different. What finally sparked her furor was when federal agents handcuffed U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla after he crashed a June news conference featuring Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

“All of this garbage about [Noem claiming], ‘I didn’t know who he was and he didn’t identify himself’ was bulls—,” she said. “It was just bulls—. But if you’re willing to do that, you’re willing to do anything. There are no limits.”

She admits to sometimes “los[ing] my cool” while speaking out against Trump and his deportation deluge, arguing it’s necessary to spark change in a place like Orange, which has a long history of anti-Latino sentiment. Within walking distance from her home is a former movie theater where Latinos were forced to sit in the balcony into the 1950s. In 2010, the City Council tried to ban day laborers and voted to support an Arizona law that made it legal for local law enforcement to question people about their immigration status.

It’s history Barrios knows and cites now but that barely registered with her back then.

“If people want to be nasty to me, I can’t stop them,” she said. “But I can try and explain where I’m coming from so that, as I told my sister once, it’s not for the person I’m talking to, it’s [for] everybody who’s watching the fight.”

Her husband — who joined her at a No Kings rally during the summer and will join her this weekend at one she helped organized — feels “nervous” about her newfound advocacy, she said.

But her late grandfather and her father, a Democrat who was the first Latino elected to the Orange Unified school board, wouldn’t have hesitated to protest against Trump’s cruelty, she said. “They wouldn’t even think twice about it.”

Barrios asked for a to-go box for her chorizo and eggs, which she barely touched during our hourlong chat. Then she reached into a cream-colored Kate Spade purse to pull out red cards.

“Know Your Rights,” they read, delineating what people can and can’t do if la migra asks them questions.

“I carry these all the time,” she said, leaving some on the table. “I see people and go, ‘Here you go. Just take some, OK?’”

FRIDAY’S RESULTS

CITY SECTION

Central League

Bernstein 54, Hollywood 0

Contreras 46, Belmont 6

Roybal 35, Mendez 0

Coliseum League

Crenshaw 12, Dorsey 8

Washington 38, Fremont 8

East Valley League

Grant 48, Fulton 13

North Hollywood 24, Arleta 20

Chavez 28, Sun Valley Poly 16

Verdugo Hills 55, Monroe 20

Eastern League

Garfield 34, Bell 19

Huntington Park 28, South East 7

L.A. Roosevelt 16, Legacy 13

East Valley League

Chavez 28, Sun Valley Poly 16

Exposition League

Jefferson 56, Angelou 0

Marquez 50, Santee 0

Marine League

Gardena 29, Wilmington Banning 6

San Pedro 48, Narbonne 6

Metro League

Hawkins 20, Rancho Dominguez 6

Northern League

Eagle Rock 41, L.A. Marshall 7

Franklin 21, L.A. Wilson 2

Southern League

Los Angeles 44, West Adams 0

Maywood CES 62, Rivera 0

Valley Mission League

Canoga Park 37, Reseda 0

Granada Hills Kennedy 42, Panorama 7

Van Nuys 49, Sylmar 46

Western League

LA Hamilton 26, Fairfax 6

Palisades 35, Westchester 19

Venice 27, LA University 7

West Valley League

Birmingham 42, El Camino Real 7

Cleveland 36, Chatsworth 19

Granada Hills 46, Taft 30

SOUTHERN SECTION

Almont League

Montebello 52, Keppel 12

Angelus League

Cathedral 56, St. Paul 25

Paraclete 49, Alemany 6

St. Pius X-St. Matthias 42, St. Francis 15

Baseline League

Chino Hills 27, Upland 21

Etiwanda 40, Ayala 0

Rancho Cucamonga 24, Damien 22

Bay League

Leuzinger 43, Inglewood 32

Mira Costa 14, Lawndale 0 (postponed in first quarter)

Palos Verdes 48, Culver City 7

Big West Lower League

Murrieta Mesa 35, Temecula Valley 21

Riverside King 44, Corona Santiago 28

Big West Upper League

Chaparral 28, Vista Murrieta 20

Murrieta Valley 55, Norco 45

Bravo League

Corona Del Mar 33, San Juan Hills 10

Tesoro 17, Newport Harbor 14

Yorba Linda 28, Villa Park 7

Camino Real League

Mary Star of the Sea 21, St. Genevieve 12

St. Bernard 48, Bosco Tech 8

Channel League

Ventura 62, Buena 13

Moorpark 52, Oak Park 27

Royal 20, Oxnard 0

Citrus Belt League

Beaumont 56, Redlands 0

Redlands East Valley 14, Citrus Valley 3

Citrus Coast League

Grace 53, Del Sol 6

Nordhoff 55, Channel Islands 14

Conejo Coast League

Newbury Park 31, Santa Barbara 21

Thousand Oaks 49, Calabasas 34

Westlake 49, Rio Mesa 20

Cottonwood League

Silver Valley 22, Temecula Prep 0

Del Rey League

Crespi 42, St. Anthony 6

La Salle 47, Harvard-Westlake 37

Salesian 64, Cantwell-Sacred Heart 7

Del Rio League

La Serna 30, El Rancho 13

Santa Fe 34, Whittier 12

Delta League

Capistrano Valley 41, Western 14

El Modena 21, Trabuco Hills 7

Desert Empire League

Palm Springs 32, La Quinta 13

Shadow Hills 18, Rancho Mirage 14

Xavier Prep 19, Palm Desert 14

Desert Sky League

Barstow 21, Victor Valley 7

Granite Hills 25, Adelanto 20

Epsilon League

Huntington Beach 65, Laguna Hills 10

Foothill League

Hart 63, West Ranch 21

Saugus 41, Canyon Country Canyon 13

Foxtrot League

Dana Hills 35, Aliso Niguel 14

Laguna Beach 42, Northwood 0

Gateway League

Dominguez 21, Paramount 14

Downey 33, Mayfair 14

Warren 27, La Mirada 13

Golden League

Highland 28, Littlerock 6

Lancaster 34, Quartz Hill 20

Palmdale 28, Knight 9

Hacienda League

Chino 49, Covina 27

Diamond Bar 30, Walnut 7

Inland Valley League

Moreno Valley 42, Citrus Hill 7

Perris 13, Lakeside 9

Iota League

El Toro 27, Anaheim Canyon 17

Irvine 43, Santa Ana 7

Troy 42, Sonora 9

Ironwood League

Aquinas 75, Ontario Christian 27

Cerritos Valley Christian 35, Capistrano Valley Christian 26

Village Christian 17, Heritage Christian 13

Ivy League

Orange Vista 49, Paloma Valley 20

Rancho Verde 21, Riverside North 14

Kappa League

Brea Olinda 21, Westminster 0

Esperanza 58, Garden Grove 33

Segerstrom 27, St. Margaret’s 14

Lambda League

Beckman 34, Fullerton 14

La Palma Kennedy 14, Placentia Valencia 7

Manzanita League

Bermuda Dunes Desert Christian 47, Nuview Bridge 0
Marmonte League

Oxnard Pacifica 17, Oaks Christian 13

St. Bonaventure 41, Simi Valley 16

Mesquite League

Maranatha 20, Linfield Christian 14

Whittier Christian 7, Arrowhead Christian 6

Mid-Cities League

Compton Early College 63, Firebaugh 49

Gahr 48, Bellflower 13

Norwalk 25, Lynwood 6

Miramonte League

Bassett 37, Workman 14

Ganesha 47, La Puente 20

Garey 41, Duarte 0

Mission League

Chaminade 35, Bishop Amat 0

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 35, Loyola 10

Sierra Canyon 30, Gardena Serra 0

Mission Valley League

El Monte 28, Rosemead 7

Gabrielino 30, South El Monte 28

Mojave River League

Oak Hills 28, Serrano 14

\Ridgecrest Burroughs 17, Sultana 7

Montview League

Hacienda Heights Wilson 42, Pomona 13

Nogales 53, Azusa 3

Ontario 49, Sierra Vista 31

Moore League

Long Beach Wilson 23, Compton 21

Millikan 49, Long Beach Jordan 10

Mountain Pass League

Elsinore 34, Temescal Canyon 18

San Jacinto 53, Tahquitz 7

Mountain Valley League

Indian Springs 30, San Bernardino 15

Mountain View 41, Pasadena Marshall 13

Ocean League

Compton Centennial 28, Beverly Hills 0

El Segundo 38, Hawthorne 0

Omicron League

Buena Park 30, Katella 3

Garden Grove Pacifica 42, Irvine University 6

Portola 17, Woodbridge 7

Pacific League

Burbank 55, Arcadia 23

Burbank Burroughs 34, Glendale 12

Muir 49, Crescenta Valley 0

Pasadena 66, Hoover 8

Pioneer League

Peninsula 35, South Torrance 34

Santa Monica 21, North Torrance 13

Torrance 34, Redondo Union 24

Rio Hondo League

La Canada 44, Temple City 3

South Pasadena 23, Monrovia 21

River Valley League

La Sierra 35, Rubidoux 24

Norte Vista 67, Jurupa Valley 0

Patriot 31, Ramona 27

Sierra League

Bonita 21, Colony 7

Charter Oak 40, Glendora 7

Claremont 28, Los Osos 24

Sigma League

Estancia 25, Rancho Alamitos 17

Santa Ana Calvary Chapel 42, Santa Ana Valley 14

Skyline League

Bloomington 16, Arroyo Valley 14

Rialto 19, Fontana 16

Sunbelt League

Hillcrest 41, Arlington 17

Riverside Poly 50, Hemet 0

Tango League

Anaheim 54, Loara 21

Bolsa Grande 14, Westminster La Quinta 7

Tri County League

Agoura 35, Santa Paula 10

Dos Pueblos 27, Hueneme 8

Fillmore 21, San Marcos 0

Trinity League

Mater Dei 25, Orange Lutheran 10

Santa Margarita 17, Servite 7

St. John Bosco 70, JSerra 21

Valle Vista League

Alta Loma 20, West Covina 6

San Dimas 35, Diamond Ranch 0

Zeta League

Saddleback 52, Godinez 14

Nonleague

Arroyo 27, Glenn 0

Brentwood 35, Don Lugo 0

Cathedral City 28, Indio 0

Mission Viejo 56, Long Beach Poly 7

Rim of the World 28, Chaffey 24

Rowland 57, Artesia 7

Yucca Valley 62, Banning 42

INTERSECTIONAL

Manual Arts 64, Verbum Dei 0

Rio Hondo Prep 49, Dallas First Baptist 28

8-MAN

CITY SECTION

City League

Animo Robinson 58, New Designs Watts 22

New Designs University Park 48, Stella 14

Valley League

Sherman Oaks CES 32, TEACH Tech 20

SOUTHERN SECTION

Nonleague

Cornerstone Christian 76, Public Safety Academy 20

Hesperia Christian 50, PAL Academy 18

Hillcrest Christian 60, Malibu 16

INTERSECTIONAL

California School for the Deaf Riverside 44, Colorado City (Ariz.) El Capitan 12

Vista St. Joseph Academy 50, California Lutheran 6

Maybe this was a pressure-creating-diamonds situation.

Somehow in the 1930s, amid the immense stresses of economic collapse, natural disaster, Olympic anxiety and the looming shadow of World War II, Los Angeles built some of its best-loved architectural gems. The jaw-dropping lobby of the Pantages Theatre (1930), the hilltop domes of Griffith Observatory (1935), the grand halls of Union Station (1939) — all were produced in that harrowing decade.

How rough were the ’30s in L.A.? The Depression, beginning with the stock market crash in October 1929, put the brakes on new construction and farm production, pushing California unemployment to an estimated 28% in 1932. The City Council, meanwhile, was led by one of the most corrupt politicians in L.A. history, Mayor Frank Shaw.

The city did pull off the 1932 Summer Olympics, drawing a record 101,000 people to the Memorial Coliseum opening ceremony. But those Games drew only 1,332 athletes from 37 countries — half as many athletes as gathered for the 1928 Games in Amsterdam.

In 1933, the Long Beach quake killed more than 100 people and destroyed at least 70 schools. The 19-story Los Angeles General Medical Center was completed (and after decades mostly idle, is now being repurposed).

In 1934 and 1938, major floods along the Los Angeles, Santa Ana and San Gabriel rivers took scores of lives and prompted the Army Corps of Engineers to build Hansen Dam in the San Fernando Valley and encase 51 miles of the L.A. River in a concrete channel.

Begun in 1936 and completed in 1959, that channel might be among the city’s largest and least attractive man-made landmarks — in the words of historian Kevin Starr, “A tombstone of concrete.” But it does its job.

As the city weathered these changes, its signature industry shrunk, then bloomed, as movies (priced at about 25 cents) distracted the masses. The arrival of color deepened the spell, as did blockbusters like 1939’s “Gone With the Wind” and “The Wizard of Oz.”

The landmarks that went up during those years aren’t all great architectural innovations; many flow directly from the Art Deco and Streamline Moderne trends of the 1920s. But all carry hints about how Angelenos changed with the times.

As critic and author David Kipen has written: “If you don’t like the weather in San Francisco, they say, just wait five minutes. If you don’t like the architecture in Los Angeles, maybe give it ten.”

Here we take a year-by-year architectural stroll through the 1930s. You can enter most of these buildings, in some cases for free, in some cases by booking a tour, buying beer or seeing a show.

The former Japanese interpreter for Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani surrendered to a federal prison in Pennsylvania on Monday, beginning a nearly five-year prison sentence for bank and tax fraud after he stole nearly $17 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers player.

Ippei Mizuhara, 40, was processed at a low-security federal prison in Allenwood, Pa., his attorney Michael Freedman confirmed. The facility is about 125 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

Mizuhara was sentenced in federal court in Santa Ana in February to four years and nine months for bank and tax fraud. He was also ordered to pay $18 million in restitution, with nearly $17 million going to Ohtani and the remainder to the IRS. He was sentenced to three years’ supervised release on top of the prison sentence.

Authorities said Mizuhara began accessing Ohtani’s account beginning in 2021 and changed its security protocols so he could impersonate Ohtani to authorize wire transfers. He has admitted to using the money to cover his growing gambling bets and debts with an illegal bookmaker, in addition to purchasing $325,000 worth of baseball cards and paying his own dental bills.

He was a close friend and confidant to Ohtani, standing by his side for many of his career highlights, from serving as his catcher during the Home Run Derby at the 2021 All-Star Game, to being there for his two American League MVP wins and his record-shattering $700 million, 10-year deal with the Dodgers.

Ohtani made his highly anticipated pitching debut Monday night for the Dodgers, nearly two years after having elbow surgery.

The Department of Homeland Security’s “sanctuary jurisdiction list” has more holes than the plot for the latest “Mission Impossible” film.

All you need to know about its accuracy is how my native Orange County fared.

The only O.C. city on the list is Huntington Beach — you know, the ‘burb with an all-Republican council that’s suing California for being a sanctuary state, declared itself a “non-sanctuary” community in January and and plans to place a plaque outside the city’s main library with an acrostic “MAGA” message.

Missing from the list? Santa Ana, long synonymous with undocumented immigrants, which declared itself a sanctuary city all the way back in 2016 and has a deportation defense fund for residents.

More laughable errors: Livingston, the first city in the Central Valley to declare itself a sanctuary for immigrants in 2017, isn’t on the list. Yet Santee in San Diego County, so notorious for its racism that people still call it “Klantee,” is.

There’s even Represa. Ever heard of it? Me, neither. Turns out it’s not a city but the name of the post office for two places not exactly known as sanctuaries: Folsom State Prison and California State Prison, Sacramento.

Within hours of his inauguration, Donald Trump signed an executive order tellingly titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” that, among other things, stated that sanctuary jurisdictions should no longer receive federal funds.

But the May 29 list laying out the jurisdictions that are supposedly subject to the penalty was so flawed that it was taken off the Homeland Security website within days. It’s still not back up. The effort seemed cobbled together by someone who typed “sanctuary” and a city’s name into Google and swallowed whatever the AI spat up without even bothering to cross-check with Wikipedia.

Trump’s opponents are already depicting this fiasco as emblematic of an administration that loves to shoot itself in the foot, then put the bloody foot in its mouth. But it’s even worse than that.

The list shows how blinded by fury the Trump administration is about illegal immigration. There is no mistake too big or too small for Trump to forgive, as long as it’s in the name of deportation and border walls. The president’s obsession with tying all of this country’s real and imagined ills to newcomers reminds me of Cato the Elder, the Roman Republic politician famous for allegedly saying “Carthage must be destroyed” at the end of all his speeches, no matter the topic.

That’s why the pushback by politicians against Homeland Security’s big, beautiful boo-boo has been quick — and hilarious.

Huntington Beach Mayor Pat Burns listens to speakers discuss the city’s plan to make Huntington Beach “a non-sanctuary city for illegal immigration” during a City Council meeting in January

(James Carbone)

Huntington Beach Mayor Pat Burns appeared on KCAL News to declare that Surf City’s inclusion was “pure negligence” while holding a small white bust of Donald Trump the way a toddler clings to its blankey.

Vista Mayor John Franklin, meanwhile, was on the city council that voted in 2018 to support the Trump administration’s unsuccessful lawsuit against California’s sanctuary state law. He told ABC 10News San Diego that he thought Vista made the list because “another city in the county that bears a similar name to ours … may have, and I haven’t confirmed it yet, adopted a sanctuary policy.”

Dude, say the city’s name: Chula Vista, a far cooler, muy Latino town closer to the U.S.-Mexico border than Vista is. It’s also on the list and isn’t a sanctuary city, either.

On the other end of the political spectrum, Rep. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) told the Voice of OC that he recently advised Santa Ana officials to “keep their head low” and not make a big deal about their sanctuary city status — as if hiding under a desk, like a “Scooby Doo” caper, will somehow save the city from the Trump administration’s haphazard hammer.

Immigration, more than any other part of Trump’s agenda, exemplifies the Silicon Valley cliché of moving fast and breaking things. His administration has deported people by mistake and given the middle finger to judges who order them brought back. Trump officials are now shipping immigrants to countries they have no ties to, and shrugging their shoulders. Immigration agents are trying to apprehend people in places long considered off-limits, like schools and places of worship.

And yet, this still isn’t enough for Trump.

Deportation rates are rising, but still not to the levels seen in some years of the Biden and Obama administrations, and not even close to Operation Wetback, the Eisenhower-era program that deported over a million Mexican nationals. Trump’s deportation dream team — Homeland Security head Kristi Noem, border czar Tom Homan and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller — has berated ICE officials for not doing more to comply with Trump’s wishes.

The sanctuary list embodies all of this. Who cares if the wreckage involves human lives, or the Constitution? The sloppiness is the point. The cruelty is the point.

Homeland Security didn’t answer my request to explain the flaws in its sanctuary jurisdiction list and why it was taken down. Instead, a spokesperson emailed a statement saying “the list is being constantly reviewed and can be changed at any time and will be updated regularly.” The decision whether to include a place, the statement said, “is based on the evaluation of numerous factors.”

Except the truth, it seems.

Let’s laugh at the absurd mistakes while we can. Really, how pendejo can you be to think that Huntington Beach is friendly to undocumented immigrants but Santa Ana isn’t? Let’s laugh while we can, because things are going to get much worse before they get better.