Correspondence - #24 - Laserfiche WebLink

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support, childcare, clothing, life skills, education, transportation, employment, substance abuse support, and post -release planning helping clients to recover faster once released back into their community. Currently the position is funded by the city at 30%, not enough to cover the full position. • Although ImmDef provides zealous representation to each of their clients, this fund does not have the financial resources to ensure that all clients have what they need to fight their case, such as expert testimony on country conditions and psychiatrists to do mental health evaluations, which are often critical for proving their claims for relief from deportation. At a cost of $1,000 or more, families cannot afford to pay for these types of evidence themselves. • The current funding level is not sufficient to serve all Santa Ana residents in need of deportation defense. Santa Ana resident stories: Client story: Mateo* Mateo* is a long-time resident of Santa Ana who was detained by ICE in December 2019 and subject to mandatory detention. Using a creative argument based upon a class action decision by a federal court in Los Angeles which held that certain immigration detainers unconstitutional, ImmDef fought to terminate his case by arguing that his due process rights were violated when he was jailed by ICE on such a detainer. While the immigration judge ultimately rejected this argument, his attorney successfully argued for release on bond, and Mateo was granted a $23K bond. He would have never been able to afford such bond; however, Mateo raised enough to pay his bond through community donations and was released from Adelanto in July of 2020. Client Story: Juanita* and Abel* In July of 2020, Juanita* and Abel* and their two children aged 10 and 12, had tested positive for COVID-19. Shortly after, Abel was hospitalized due to the severity of his symptoms, and Junita was home with her children, all three of them sick as well. Neither of the two providers could work during this time, and did not have enough food in the house to last them past the week Immdef's case management team and development team connected the family to a donor who could organize a grocery delivery for the family to have enough food to last throughout their recovery. The family was also very concerned about getting behind on rent payments so the case manager filled out an application for relief funds available to Orange County residents through the Orange County Justice Fund, where the family qualified for $2000 in assistance. Additionally, the donor who assisted with grocery deliveries began a fundraiser within their personal circles and raised another $1,000 for the family. Once home the case manager connected them to Santa Ana clinics where they could get tested again for COVID-19 to show their results were negative and begin to work again.