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Latino Health Access 450 W. Fourth Street, Suite 130 Santa Ana, CA 92701 714-542-7792 www.latinohealthaccess.org February 4, 2025 Mayor Amezcua and City Councilmembers 20 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA 92701 ecomment@santa-ana.org SUBJECT: SUPPORT AGENDA ITEM 21 Dear Mayor Amezcua and City Councilmembers, For over 30 years, Latino Health Access has been proudly working alongside community residents to bring health, equity, and sustainable change to underserved communities through education, services, consciousness-raising, and civic participation. We strive to provide culturally appropriate health-related services and programming to address urgent health concerns while also empowering individuals in low-income, low-opportunity areas to transform their environments and create positive changes in their homes and communities. Therefore, we urge you to support Agenda Item 21 and bring back the Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group, a community oversight mechanism written within the ordinance to facilitate trust and transparency between the City of Santa Ana and its immigrant residents. In 2017, the City Council unanimously passed Ordinance No. NS-2908, which mandates policies that prohibit the use of city resources for immigration enforcement, protect sensitive information, prevent biased-based policing, and establish a task force composed of community members to advise the City Council on policies related to the ordinance. This task force, known as the Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group, was created to ensure strong protections for immigrant residents by advising the city on sanctuary policies and immigrant protections, as well as overseeing the Santa Ana Deportation Defense Fund, which provides legal representation for immigrants facing deportation. However, it has come to our attention that the Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group has not convened since 2020. Furthermore, no recent updates have been provided by the City Manager or designee to the City Council regarding the Advisory Group's activities or the overall status of Santa Ana’s sanctuary city initiatives. This lack of engagement and accountability poses potential risks to the continuity and effectiveness of the City’s immigrant protection measures. Given the current uncertainty regarding immigration policy threatening to deport and disrupt mixed immigration status families, it is imperative for the City of Santa Ana to reaffirm its support for the immigrant community and revive the Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group to help facilitate trust and transparency between the City of Santa Ana and its immigrant residents. Ultimately, the Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group plays a vital role in upholding Santa Ana’s sanctuary city designation and ensuring that immigrant residents are protected and welcomed. Therefore, we stand with Councilmember Lopez’s request with Agenda Item #21, which will direct the City Manager to complete the following: 1. Reconvene the Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group within the next 30 days and provide a written update to the City Council within this same time frame; and __________________________________________________________________________ PREVENTION EDUCATION ACTION Docusign Envelope ID: 8D564A80-EFB5-405F-B749-3605862BD048