An unlikely but very vocal immigrant advocate

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

- GUSTAVO ARELLANO COLUMNIST

JULIANA YAMADA Los Angeles Times

ORANGE City Councilmember Arianna Barrios comes from Orange County GOP royalty, but she's no fan of President Trump.

The Orange City Council member comes from O.C. Republican royalty. Her grandfather Cruz Barrios 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 a 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 goody-goody, 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 immigration court in Adelanto, Calif., 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.