As Santa Ana reckons with a $16 million budget shortfall, the police and city officials on Tuesday reported that around $500,000 was spent responding to anti-ICE protests last summer — and that legal claims filed by protesters could push that cost even higher.
Around $400,000 of that amount was spent over four days last year — June 9, 10, 11 and 14 — when residents descended on the downtown area to protest ramped up immigration enforcement actions under the Trump administration.
City Attorney Sonia Carvalho said during Tuesday’s City Council meeting that the city has received four claims and one lawsuit stemming from the police department’s actions during the protests…