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In AN HARBOR <br />j IMMIGRANT Vera INSTITUTE INSTITUTE <br />DEFENDERS OF JUSTICE 1J' <br />Ut C,,,,, v 1201 FOR IMMIGRANT B ECONOMIC JUSTICE <br />Attn: Mayor Vicente Sarmiento, Mayor Pro Tem David Penaloza, Councilmember Thai <br />Viet Phan, Councilmember Jessie Lopez, Councilmember Phil Bacerra, Councilmember <br />Johnathan Ryan Hernandez, Councilmember Nelida Mendoza. <br />Monday, May 17th, 2021 <br />Santa Ana City Council <br />20 Civic Center Plaza, <br />Santa Ana, CA 92701 <br />Re: Make Santa Ana's Deportation Defense Fund a Permanent Program for FY 2021-2022 <br />Dear Mayor Vicente Sarmiento and Santa Ana City Council Members, <br />On behalf of the Orange County Justice Fund (OCJF), Immigrant Defenders Law Center <br />(ImmDef), Vera Institute of Justice, Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice, <br />VietRISE and the 32 organizations signed below, we urge you to expand and make sustainable <br />the city's Deportation Defense Fund by allocating funding every year at the level of <br />$300,000 starting in this FY 2021-22 budget. <br />According to Vera Institute of Justice in its Restoring Due Process in Santa Ana Report, the <br />program, since its establishment in 2017, has provided critical legal defense to 46 Santa Ana <br />residents facing detention and deportation. Collectively they are parents to 53 children under the <br />age of 18, most all of whom are U.S. citizens. <br />The expanded funding will help address the following unmet needs of the program, which is <br />at the current level of funding of $200,000: <br />Additional funding and permanent support will allow the program to increase <br />immigration direct legal services and outreach to Vietnamese residents and other Asian <br />communities in the city. <br />It has been a challenge for the legal provider (ImmDef) to build up and maintain their <br />referral, intake, and case opening systems without any funding for administrative work, <br />like what they get from the state of California for other types of cases. The paralegal <br />assigned to the program has been working overtime to cover these administrative tasks on <br />top of her legal duties. <br />• ImmDef's legal services include access to a Case Manager who connects clients to <br />life-saving social services such as food assistance, housing, healthcare, mental health <br />