Correspondence - #14, #18 and #21

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Advancing social justice and building power with working-class Vietnamese and immigrant communities in Orange County since 2018. �® 14351 Euclid St.#1M,Garden Grove,CA 92843 (714)-589-5496 1 www.vietrise.org I general@vietrise.org I @vietriseoc August 28, 2023 Dear Mayor Amezcua and City Council Members, My name is Tracy La and 1 am the Executive Director of VietRISE. On behalf of VietRISE, I am writing to express our support for Agenda item#18, the resolution Declaring Support of the HOME Act (AB1306). The HOME Act ensures that immigrant and refugee communities who have earned release through past criminal justice reforms are protected from the brutal and unjust double punishment they face when they are transferred from prison to ICE immigration detention. This bill specifically provides relief for those who have received their convictions as youth, elderly, and medical parole releases. This is one critical step toward making California a true sanctuary state for immigrants and refugees, and as the first city in Orange County to declare itself a sanctuary city, Santa Ana must take this stand to call for the end of ICE transfers. In addition, we are in strong support of Agenda item#21, the proposal to create an ordinance requiring supermajority approval for future amendments to Santa Ana's Rent Stabilization and Just Cause Eviction Ordinance. As a city where renters constitute the majority, these ordinances have provided a brief respite from drastic rent increases for eligible units since their enactment. Given that wages have failed to keep pace with rising rent costs, allowing landlords to increase rents by more than 3% annually creates unnecessarily unstable living conditions for the majority of the city's residents. For tenants who have struggled to make ends meet, these ordinances have provided much-needed financial relief, allowing them to allocate resources to other essential needs such as healthcare, education, and savings. It is imperative that the current city council takes the necessary steps to safeguard a tremendously popular city policy that has brought significant relief to a substantial portion of the city. Lastly, we are in strong opposition to Agenda item#14, the Master Service Agreement with Lexipol. Alarming reports from both the ACLU of Washington and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project illuminate a deeply troubling pattern surrounding Lexipol—an unsettling history marred by the formulation of policies that scarcely scrape by the bare legal minimum. By using broad and vague language, their policies are written in such a way that serve to protect police officers and limit police departments' liability rather than establish best practices that protect the public. Lexipol policies have historically included provisions that authorize the use of force in situations that are unnecessary, which have led to excessive force incidents and harm toward people by police officers. Alongside the heightened risk of lawsuits, the harm that Lexipol's