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Attn: Mayor Miguel Pulido, Mayor Pro Tern Juan Villegas, Councilmember Vicente <br />Sarmiento, Councilmember David Penaloza, Councilmember Jose Solorio, Councilmember <br />Phil Bacerra, Councilmember Nelida Mendoza. <br />Tuesday, June 2nd, 2020 <br />Santa Ana City Council <br />20 Civic Center Plaza, <br />Santa Ana, CA 92701 <br />Re: Renewal of Santa Ana's Deportation Defense Fund for FY 2020-2021 <br />Santa Ana Mayor and City Council, <br />On behalf of the Orange County Justice Fund (OCJF) and the 14 organizations signed below, we <br />urge you to continue funding for the city's Deportation Defense Fund at the current level of <br />$200,000 in this FY 2020-21 budget. The program provides critical immigration legal defense <br />to Santa Ana residents facing detention and deportation, especially during this current global <br />pandemic where immigrant detention centers are considered a public health crisis. <br />We commend the City of Santa Ana for its leadership of being the first city in Orange County to <br />pioneer an immigrant legal defense fund after declaring itself a sanctuary city. It ensures legal <br />representation for immigrant families in the city facing detention and deportation. According to <br />Vera Institute of Justice in its Restoring Due Process in Santa Ana Report, the program has since <br />its establishment in 2017 represented 37 Santa Ana residents through the Immigrant Defenders <br />Law Center. Collectively they are parents to 41 children under the age of 18 and most of them <br />are U.S. citizens. <br />The Deportation Defense Fund has broad support from residents in the city. A survey conducted <br />in April 2020 by Vera found that 79% of Santa Ana residents overwhelmingly support <br />government -funded attorneys for immigrants facing deportations. In addition, our congressional <br />representative Lou Correa has called on the city to continue its commitment to our immigrant <br />community in a recent opinion article published in the Orange County Register. <br />We understand the city is considering making difficult financial decisions in its FY 2020-21 <br />budget due to the economic impact of the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). That is why the <br />city council should consider the Deportation Defense Fund as an economic support for Santa <br />Ana immigrant families, as part of the city's response to COVID-19. The economic impact of <br />