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With the Trump administration escalating immigration enforcement, a number of California municipal and county governments are setting aside public money to help immigrants and rapid response networks build legal defenses.
San Francisco and Alameda County are among the latest to designate additional money for immigrants to defend themselves against deportation. In October, when President Donald Trump threatened to increase Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors beefed up its defense fund by a unanimous vote with $3.5 million. In March, Alameda County doubled the fund it had started with $3.5 million.
Richmond, Los Angeles and Santa Clara County also have established immigration defense funds. And Bay Area cities have joined forces to create Stand Together Bay Area Fund, a legal resource completely funded by philanthropy.
Santa Clara County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg said it’s in the county’s best interest to protect immigrants, who make up 40% of its population.
“ We have a direct nexus and concern to people who are working, living, raising families, paying taxes, participating in our community and keeping our economy and our social fabric strong,” Ellenberg said. “ So our local dollars are being spent to protect local interests.”
Caitlin Patler, associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Goldman School of Public Policy, said the funds are necessary, given the large immigrant population in the United States and the punitive nature of immigration courts.
“I don’t think that anyone should be representing themselves in any courtroom when the government comes with an attorney every time,” she said.
Unlike criminal cases, deportation proceedings are in civil court, which means those defending themselves against the federal government do not have a right to a court-appointed lawyer free of charge. But the cases have an enormous impact on people’s lives.
“Immigration judges have said these cases are like adjudicating life sentences in a traffic court setting,” Patler said.
Legal funds precede Trump’s election
Local government investments in defense funds for immigrants are not new, and they precede the Trump era.
In 2013, New York City became the first major city to implement a pilot legal defense fund for immigrants, after the Obama administration ramped up enforcement. San Francisco launched a similar program the following year.
A 2014 study by the Northern California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice found that immigrants represented by a lawyer from a number of Bay Area nonprofits won 83% of their removal hearings, substantially higher than those who had no representation. But two-thirds of detained immigrants didn’t have any access to legal counsel.
California established an Immigrant Assistance Program in 2015, shortly after the Obama administration expanded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, enabling more immigrants who came to the U.S. undocumented as children to legally live and work. Known as “One California,” the $45 million fund supports nonprofits that serve immigrants including with legal help. The program prohibits funds to be used for those convicted of a serious felony.
The fund is part of the annual budget year after year, although debates have emerged on whether the funds can be used by immigrants with felony convictions. Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a budget bill that some immigrant advocates criticized as too restrictive because it appeared to expand the number of felony offenses that exclude someone from state-supported legal support. Newsom’s stance aligned with Republicans who wanted to tighten access to the fund.
While immigrant defense funds started more than a decade ago, the trend picked up in late 2016, after Trump’s first election. That year, Trump campaigned on toughening border enforcement and discouraging immigration throughout the country.
Los Angeles soon after Trump’s inauguration in 2017 became one of the cities to set up funds for immigrants to use against deportation.
It was the start of a $10 million public-private fund launched by former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. The Los Angeles Justice Fund, which was expanded in 2022 to create RepresentLA, is an ongoing investment by the city, county and philanthropic organizations.
More funding after Trump’s re-election
A month before Trump’s second presidency, Santa Clara County allocated $5 million to support response activities related to Trump’s targeting of immigrants. Since then, it has increased that allocation to $13 million.
Santa Clara’s fund is more expansive that most others, Ellenberg said, supporting an array of immigration resource organizations including the Rapid Response Network, as well as legal defense, outreach, education and prevention efforts.
This year, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stood at a news conference with the mayors of Oakland and San Jose to announce the Stand Together Bay Area Fund, with a goal of raising $10 million to support immigrant families impacted by detentions and deportations. The cities have not allocated any public dollars to this fund, which is being managed by the nonprofit San Francisco Foundation.
“ My understanding is that their role is to support fundraising,” said Rachel Benditt, the foundation’s spokesperson. “I do not believe that they will be donating money from the city budgets.”
In a news release about the fund, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said it will pool resources from individuals, corporations, the faith community, and philanthropic partners to support nonprofit groups working with immigrant communities.
Three Alameda County supervisors are using some taxpayer money to support the effort. It will come from the so-called discretionary budgets they receive to support activities in their districts. Supervisor Nikki Fortnato Bas said she will donate $50,000 to the cause.
“These dollars are one piece of a much larger fight,” she said in a news release. “A fight for dignity, for rights, and for the future of our democracy.”
This story is part of “The Stakes,” a UC Berkeley Journalism project on executive orders and actions affecting Californians and their communities.
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