Hundreds protest homeless, sanctuary city law outside Orange County Board of Supervis

Hundreds protest homeless, sanctuary city law outside Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting

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Hundreds of people gather outside the Board of Supervisors meeting at the Hall of Administration in Santa Ana on Tuesday, March 27. Orange County supervisors will decide Tuesday whether to rescind their recent vote that could site emergency homeless shelters in Irvine, Huntington Beach, and Laguna Niguel. Many immigration advocates are protesting Supervisor Shawn Nelson’s call to join the DOJ in suing CA about its Sanctuary State law. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
17 COMMENTS

By JORDAN GRAHAM | jgraham@scng.com and ROXANA KOPETMAN | rkopetman@scng.com| Orange County Register
PUBLISHED: March 27, 2018 at 10:27 am | UPDATED: March 27, 2018 at 10:59 am


A crowd of hundreds showed up for the County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday morning, March 27, as the governing panel discussed two hot button issues: homeless camps and sanctuary laws.

Community members had started lining up by 7:30 a.m. to attend the 9 a.m. meeting. More were outside protesting as the meeting got under way.

Related: Watch the live stream of the supervisors’ meeting

Supervisors are expected to decide whether to rescind their recent vote on possibly placing emergency homeless shelters in Irvine, Huntington Beach and Laguna Niguel.

Outside the building, those who couldn’t get into the meeting room held signs such as “No tent city in Irvine,” and “Protect our children,” and chanted “No tent city!” A small group of homeless advocates chanted “Love the homeless” back at the crowd.

Word of the supervisors’ plan for creating the tent camps last week prompted crowds of residents to fill city council meetings in Irvine and Laguna Niguel to make their concerns heard.

Residents mobilized quickly on Facebook and in Irvine a protest was held Friday morning.

Officials with WeIrvine, an internet-based business that promotes Irvine to Chinese immigrants and helps them settle in the city, had said previously it was chartering 14 buses to take residents to the county meeting.

Also, two of the supervisors said previously they planned to introduce measures contrary to California’s so-called sanctuary law that range from a county resolution similar in spirit to the ordinance passed in Los Alamitos defying the law, to filing a lawsuit against the state.

https://www.ocregister.com/2018/03/2...isors-meeting/

Online service WeIrvine helps new immigrants while attracting more of them to the city

2 COMMENTSBy TOMOYA SHIMURA | tshimura@scng.com | Orange County Register
December 15, 2016 at 5:46 pm


IRVINE – Zhihai Li walked around the balcony of the Resort at Pelican Hill overlooking the ocean, introducing Morgan Stanley Wealth Management representatives to some potential clients.
Most of the guests at the investment luncheon had moved to Irvine in the past few years or were looking to do so. Many spoke little English.

They are part of a new wave of immigrants moving to the United States from mainland China, where the rapid economic growth has created millionaires and billionaires. Most are wealthy enough to buy a million-dollar home with cash.

“They have admiration for the U.S.,” Li said. “They like to learn the American culture and assimilate.”

Li is one of the four people who run WeIrvine, an online startup aimed at helping new Chinese immigrants settle in Irvine and promoting the city to potential residents. With over 20,000 subscribers, WeIrvine has become a virtual hub for the people who’ve made Irvine the largest continental U.S. city with more Asian residents than white residents.

Thanks to its public schools and reputation for safety, Irvine has become one of the top destinations for wealthy Chinese families moving to the United States for their children’s education.

And recent instability in China’s economy has accelerated their desire to invest overseas, at a time when Irvine is quickly adding houses on its way toward a projected population of about 328,000.

WeIrvine started on WeChat, an instant messaging service with most of its 700 million active users in China. But anyone can access the site from a regular browser.

The site includes Chinese articles on Irvine’s education, real estate, food, neighborhoods, shopping, recreation and health care. It also lists events and seminars in and around Irvine, including those organized by WeIrvine like the investment luncheon at the Pelican Hill resort.

WeIrvine connects its subscribers with local professionals such as real estate agents and doctors, vetted by staff. And it’s all free.

“It really helps new immigrants become familiar with life here, like school enrollment,” WeIrvine user Stan Xu, 49, said. “It’s like a guide to daily life.”

Xu moved to Irvine in August from China so his children could attend schools here. He began subscribing to WeIrvine a year ago to learn how to buy and lease homes and to find options for restaurants, schools and youth sports in Irvine.

Now Xu – who is developing his own skin care brand and trying to make Asian cosmetic products popular in the U.S. – uses WeIrvine to meet people and connect with other Chinese business owners.

New Chinese immigrants often start their own businesses and are looking for investment opportunities.

This takes time because they don’t know the law and they don’t know how to find the right people,” he said. “WeIrvine fills that gap.”

WeIrvine launched on Nov. 22, 2014, when founder Xiaoxiang Lu posted an article titled “The best city to live in America.”

The Irvine resident and software developer came up with the idea with Guoqing Wu, his roommate from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, who was shopping for a home in Irvine.

They realized it was hard to find information in Chinese about Irvine compared to other cities popular among immigrants, such as Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Li, who was also college classmates with Lu and lives in Irvine, joined the team with her husband, Shih-chien Wu. The couple is in charge of daily operations because Lu works full time at a local tech company and Guoqing Wu, vice president of finance, is in China, waiting for his U.S. visa to be issued.

WeIrvine adds about 1,000 new subscribers each month and receives more than 200 inquiries a day, Lu said. The company recently hosted seminars in Nanjing and Shanghai to talk about Irvine because more than 35 percent of its subscribers are still in China.

“We need more help because we are too busy,” the 41-year-old founder said.

Lu, who moved to the United States in 2000 to get his master’s degree in computer science at UC Irvine, said he understands the challenges of starting a life in a new country.

Imagine you have to figure out how to open a bank account, buy a car and pick between PPO and HMO in a foreign place where you can’t understand what others are saying, he said. You’d also have to make friends and make sure your visa doesn’t expire, he said.

“New immigrants are isolated,” Xu said. “That’s why WeIrvine is so popular. It’s wonderful for them because they get to know new people.”

What sets the new Chinese immigrants apart from those who came in the past is wealth, WeIrvine staff say.

Many who came to the United States from China and Taiwan in the late 20th century were university students and researchers, like Lu was. Most of the new immigrants buying homes in Irvine, Li said, have made enough money in China to qualify for EB-5, a federal program that allows immigrants to get a green card for themselves and their families if they invest at least $500,000 to create jobs here.

Many are real estate investors, investment bankers, lawyers, factory owners and other business owners, Lu said. A large number of millionaires in mainland China want to move to the U.S. for better education, more freedom and a cleaner environment, he said.

About a third of the new Chinese homebuyers move to Irvine with their whole family, Li said. Another third send their school-aged children and their mother while the father stays in China for work. Others wait until their children are old enough to attend school.

Right now, WeIrvine doesn’t make much money, not enough to even pay for office space. Much of the revenue comes from ads and charging businesses and professionals featured on the site.

But the staff is focused on growing the number of users and keeping the services free for subscribers. Lu said he is laser-focused on WeIrvine’s original mission.

“We just want to help these people,” he said.

https://www.ocregister.com/2016/12/1...m-to-the-city/

Why Asians have become the dominant group in Irvine CA.