Indio City Council divided on its role in immigration enforcement, transparency

The Indio City Council on Wednesday discussed the merits of requesting transparency from federal law enforcement amid ongoing arrests and detainments of Indio residents by federal immigration and law enforcement agencies.

The discussion comes two weeks after a video went viral that appeared to show a woman being taken outside of the Larson Justice Center by masked but unidentified men.

At the City Council meeting on Nov. 5, Councilmember Oscar Ortiz brought up the idea of the city itself requesting, via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, more information and data on the arrests happening in the city.

“I think it’s important to document this for awareness, for accountability, and for historical records,” Ortiz said at that meeting. Information could be related to who is being taken and when, what the chargers were, and whether any legal residents or U.S. citizens were wrongfully detained.

No action was taken two weeks ago, and the matter was again up for discussion at the City Council meeting on Wednesday.

Ortiz said after speaking with local border patrol officers, the city should go straight to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice to inquire about all enforcement activity in the city this year.

He said a FOIA request coming from a city might have more weight than if an individual or nonprofit requested the same information. Ortiz noted that Cathedral City Mayor Nancy Ross had requested similar information but had not heard back, but the cities of Santa Ana and Encinitas had been successful in their requests and that Indio should follow their lead.

He added that it’s important to understand social and economic impacts on the city.

“We need to know how many of our youth are being left without parents, how many families are being emotionally and economically impacted, and how much we can expect these enforcement activities to affect local revenues for the city, for our schools and for small businesses,” he said.

Mayor Glenn Miller and Mayor Pro Tem Elaine Holmes expressed their discomfort with the idea, preferring to leave the issue to Rep. Raul Ruiz, who represents Indio in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“I think our resources are limited to what we can do, and I don’t think it’s in our jurisdiction to be able to dictate anything,” Miller said. 

Councilmembers Waymond Fermon and Benjamin Guitron both took matters into their own hands after the Nov. 5 meeting, Fermon filed his own request for information and Guitron contacted the office of Rep. Ruiz.

Both Fermon and Guitron supported Ortiz in his effort to bring back the question of issuing a FOIA request at a future meeting to be formally voted on.

Fermon said immigrants work and live and shop in the city of Indio, “I think we owe it to some of those folks and their families to provide resources where they could go to get assistance and also gain citizenship, if that’s the ultimate goal,” he said.

Before the councilmembers’ debate, they heard from the local Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce who said they are working with lawyers and the ACLU to help the immigrant community.

“Regardless of how we feel, what’s going on in Washington, we’re here making sure the community is thriving, working together for unity and making sure that division is not occurring, making sure that everyone has the American dream,” Rudy Morales, the chamber’s, vice president of government Affairs told councilmembers 

Indio City Manager Bryan Montgomery said the item will be on the agenda, and it’s up to council whether or not they seek more information from staff, or formally for a FOIA request to be made.

---