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February 4, 2025 Santa Ana City Council 20 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA 92701 Re: Agenda Item #21 - Reconvening of Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group Dear Mayor Valerie Amezcua and Santa Ana City Council Members, As always, we are enthusiastic about supporting policies that ensure local resources do not go towards immigration enforcement. Residents deserve the reassurance of knowing that local leaders will not allow taxpayer dollars to be co-opted for Trump's mass deportation agenda. We write to remind the Council of a few important issues that still need attention to ensure that sanctuary is truly upheld for everyone in Santa Ana: - While efforts to reaffirm and build on Santa Ana's sanctuary ordinance are highly encouraged, we do not recommend attaching Santa Ana's Immigration Legal Defense Fund to the Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group. We would like these two matters to be addressed separately. The Fund has historically suffered gaps in outreach and services that remain unaddressed, particularly in relation to the City's Southeast Asian refugee community members.' Seeing as the Fund's current provider was the only bidder for the next Fund contract, the Fund should first be restructured to 1) increase the scope of services and 2) expand outreach to communities not currently serviced before advancing any process that would result in granting the current provider the contract again. - Our concerns with the Immigration Legal Defense Fund translate into suggestions regarding the proposed reconvening of and updates to the Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group. We hope that the Advisory Group will reflect the diversity of communities impacted by the threat of deportation- including the local Vietnamese community, which remains extremely disproportionately unprotected under state law from ICE transfers-and we are optimistic that the Council will ensure the Advisory Group is representative of these various perspectives.2 Sincerely, Harbor Institute for Immigrant & Economic Justice El Centro Cultural de Mexico VietRISE ' Brazil,Ben. "Santa Ana approves more funding for deportation defense fund,"Los Ange/es Times, June 17,2021. https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/entertainment/story/2021-06-17/deportation-defense-fund 2 In 2024,over 90 percent of individuals with immigration detainers in Orange County Sheriff's Department custody who were born in Vietnam were not protected under California state law from being referred and/or transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.See Do,Mai N."Safeguarding Which Communities?An Analysis of the Orange County Sheriff's Department's Continued Collusion with Immigration &Customs Enforcement,"January 2025.https://h orb orinstituteoc.ora/ocsdicetransfers2024/