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‘Boots on the ground’ behind Anaheim’s Contigo program

April 14, 2026

Immigration enforcement raids have slowed in Anaheim since January, but city leaders recently committed up to another $100,000 of funding for their emergency assistance initiative, responding to a need in the community for help with legal defense.

“We are in a different place today than we were at the peak,” Anaheim’s Chief Communications Officer Mike Lyster said. “There is still a need for real-time information, there’s still a need for emergency assistance grants, but now you have many people going through the immigration court process.”

As federal immigration enforcement officials spread out into Orange County cities last May, carrying out President Donald Trump’s promise to curtail illegal immigration and increase deportations, concern spread through communities as agents were spotted and raids reported.

And as immigrants started avoiding public places and staying indoors, the Anaheim City Council launched the city’s Contigo program in June with an initial $250,000 to provide those affected with financial support and establish a team to track and alert residents to immigration enforcement activity in the city.

Immigration sweeps peaked in Orange County’s most populous city last summer with at least 30 detainments between mid-June and mid-September, including when federal officers descended several times on car washes and a Home Depot, ending in several deportations.

The Euclid Car Wash, at the corner of Euclid and La Palma in the City of Anaheim has been the site of 6 seperate federal immigration raids in recent months. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

But raids slowed, Lyster said, following nationwide protests after a string of fatal civilian shootings by immigration officers in Minneapolis.

Now the Contigo team can go weeks without seeing activity. And when there is activity, it’s targeted, as opposed to the broader sweeps the city saw over the summer, he said.

Every 10 days, the average for recent months, the Contigo team confirms a detainment by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the city.

“That’s currently the running trend,” Lyster said, part of the “boots on the ground” team the city created, whose members — also including city communication specialists Alan Reyes, Esther Kwon and Natalie Aguirre — verify and post real-time updates on immigration enforcement activity in Anaheim and steer affected families toward grants and resources.

Federal officers are sparing in their communication with the city’s Police Department, Lyster said, and “we do not have any sort of detailed knowledge of their operations, and we tend to find out something when everybody else may find out about it, but we’ve built a very good network.”

Between tips from councilmembers and trusted residents and surveying social media for immigration enforcement activity, the Contigo team has partnered with community groups such as the Orange County Rapid Response Network, a coalition of nonprofits, attorneys and organizations, to try and keep up.

The latest round of Contigo funding will go toward a contract with a nonprofit immigration legal services provider that can help represent those who’ve been detained.

With people in detainment, the legal defense component “reflects a secondary stage of this,” Lyster said, “where now the legal needs of those who have been impacted are pretty much equal to the need for information and emergency assistance grants.”

City of Anaheim Chief Communications Officer Mike Lyster, left, and Communications Specialist Natalie Aguirre talk to a vendor inside the Anaheim Marketplace to inform her that the city and local law enforcement will never work with federal immigration officers during a Contigo Initiative outreach following recent ICE raids that have the left the community on edge on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

City of Anaheim Chief Communications Officer Mike Lyster, left, and Communications Specialists Natalie Aguirre, center, and Esther Kwon talk to a vendor inside the Anaheim Marketplace to inform her that the city and local law enforcement will never work with federal immigration officers during a Contigo Initiative outreach following recent ICE raids that have the left the community on edge on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

Mike Lyster, Chief Communications Officer for the City of Anaheim, speaks to a resident inside the Anaheim Marketplace, near where recent ICE raids have left the largely immigrant community on high alert, as part of the city’s Contigo Initiative, aimed at communicating to residents that the city and local law enforcement never work with federal immigration officers, on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

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Contigo, ‘With You’

“I understand your fear.”

That’s often the first thing Aguirre, the Contigo team’s Spanish speaker, tells families who’ve seen a loved one detained.

“We have so many people in our neighborhoods that are closely affected by this,” said Aguirre, who helped pick the name Contigo, translating to “with you” in Spanish. “Whether their loved one has been detained or is just living in the fear of potentially being detained, it’s definitely a tough situation all around.”

Aguirre said she can relate, the daughter of immigrants who now have their citizenship, “but for a while, were in very similar situations to what some of these community members are in.”

After a detainment, the priority of the Contigo team is to “explain to them what the next steps are and to provide as much guidance as we can,” she said.

Mike Lyster, Chief Communications Officer for the City of Anaheim, speaks to a resident in front of the Anaheim Marketplace, near where recent ICE raids have left the largely immigrant community on high alert, as part of the city’s Contigo Initiative, aimed at communicating to residents that the city and local law enforcement never work with federal immigration officers, on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

Natalie Aguirre, center, a Communications Specialist for the City of Anaheim, and Esther Kwon, a Senior Communications Specialist, talk with a resident of the Romneya neighborhood, assuring him that the city and local law enforcement never work with federal immigration officers, during a Contigo Initiative outreach on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

City of Anaheim representatives Mike Lyster, right, Chief Communications Officer, and Communications Specialists Natalie Aguirre, left, and Esther Kwon talk to a resident of the Romneya neighborhood on his driveway to let him know that the city and local law enforcement will never work with federal immigration officers during a Contigo Initiative outreach following recent ICE raids that have the left the community on edge on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

City of Anaheim Communications Specialists Esther Kwon, right, and Natalie Aguirre talk with a resident of the Romneya neighborhood, assuring her that the city and local law enforcement never work with federal immigration officers, following recent ICE raids that have left the largely immigrant community on high alert, during a Contigo Initiative outreach on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

Mike Lyster, Chief Communications Officer for the City of Anaheim, speaks to a resident in front of her home in the Romneya neighborhood, where recent ICE raids have left the largely immigrant community on high alert, as part of the city’s Contigo Initiative, aimed at communicating to residents that the city and local law enforcement never work with federal immigration officers, on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

Mike Lyster, Chief Communications Officer for the City of Anaheim, speaks to a resident in front of his home in the Romneya neighborhood, where recent ICE raids have left the largely immigrant community on high alert, as part of the city’s Contigo Initiative, aimed at communicating to residents that the city and local law enforcement never work with federal immigration officers, on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

City of Anaheim Communications Specialists Esther Kwon, left, and Natalie Aguirre talk with a resident of the Romneya neighborhood, assuring him that the city and local law enforcement never work with federal immigration officers, following recent ICE raids that have left the largely immigrant community on high alert, during a Contigo Initiative outreach on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

Mike Lyster, Chief Communications Officer for the City of Anaheim, looks for residents to talk to as he drives through the Romneya neighborhood, where recent ICE raids have left the largely immigrant community on high alert, as part of the city’s Contigo Initiative, aimed at communicating to residents that the city and local law enforcement never work with federal immigration officers, on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

Mike Lyster, Chief Communications Officer for the City of Anaheim, speaks to a resident at Manzanita Park, near where recent ICE raids have left the largely immigrant community on high alert, as part of the city’s Contigo Initiative, aimed at communicating to residents that the city and local law enforcement never work with federal immigration officers, on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

City of Anaheim Communications Specialists Esther Kwon, center, and Natalie Aguirre talk with a resident of the Romneya neighborhood, assuring him that the city and local law enforcement never work with federal immigration officers, following recent ICE raids that have left the largely immigrant community on high alert, during a Contigo Initiative outreach on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

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Last month, federal officers detained a man making his way out of his home and to his truck to get to work; he was deported, the Contigo team learned, that day around 6 p.m. to Tijuana, “where he really has no connection with,” Lyster said.

For the next few weeks, “we were thinking about potentially planning a trip (for the family) to visit him, making sure people had passports, and being in contact with the Mexican consulate,” Lyster said. “Depending on what the situation is, we will provide them with information and then provide them with the referrals.”

The Contigo team has fielded hundreds of reports of immigration activity, going into neighborhoods and working with residents to piece together whether the reports were substantiated, whether anyone was detained and how to best connect residents with resources.

As of mid-March, $225,262 had been granted to 343 Anaheim residents. And the city recently launched a new housing support program, Stay Housed Anaheim, which is intended to help Anaheim residents impacted by immigration enforcement with one-time emergency rental assistance up to $3,000.

The legal defense component is on track to go live this month, Lyster said.

“We’ve been working on creating this legal defense fund for some time now and that really puts things into perspective, the importance of our roles,” said Councilmember Carlos Leon, who helped pioneer Contigo.

“Although our role has nothing to do with federal enforcement, and we can’t control what is happening, we’re trying to at least control how we respond,” Leon said.

Last year, Anaheim was one of the first Orange County cities to join a federal lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alleging unconstitutional raids and stops.

As the Contigo program nears its first anniversary, Lyster said the team has found its footing and “where we are today, I truly do believe it is hard for an incident to happen without us hearing about it.”

“But it’s not easy,” he said. “You’re constantly seeing things, you’re addressing a gap. It has completely evolved.”

‘Boots on the ground’ behind Anaheim’s Contigo program Orange County Register

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‘Boots on the ground’ behind Anaheim’s Contigo program

Contigo, ‘With You’

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