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February 4, 2024 Mayor Amezcua and City Councilmembers 20 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA 92701 ecomment(&santa-ana.mz Via Entail RE: SUPPORT Item 21: Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group Dear Mayor Amezcua and City Council: Chispa seeks to engage with excluded peoples to uproot systems of oppression and cultivate systems grounded in community accountability, solidarity, and self-determination for our communities to thrive. We are a membership based organization for young people advocating for systemic changes across Orange County(OC). Chispa is committed to supporting Immigrants in OC, including our members and their families, and Sanctuary City protections in the City of Santa Ana (City). We write to express our strongest support for the reconvening of the Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group (Advisory Group). The Advisory Group is a critical oversight mechanism written into Ordinance NO. NS -2908, the Sanctuary City Ordinance (Ordinance), to facilitate trust and transparency between the City and its large Immigrant population. In January 2017, the Council passed the robust Ordinance with language directing the establishment of a task force made up of community members to advise the City Council(Council) on policies related to the Ordinance; including the crafting of policies to protect Immigrants as well as recommending ways to use and oversee a City fund to help Immigrants fight deportation in court. This Advisory Group has not met recently and now is the time for it to be reconvened. Immigrants are under attack and it is necessary for the City to reaffirm its support for the Immigrant community and revive the Advisory Group to help facilitate trust and transparency between the City and its Immigrant residents. The City's status as a Sanctuary City is a direct result of years of advocacy for the political, economic, and human rights of our vibrant Immigrant communities. The Council met the moment in 2017 when