Correspondence - Item 13 - Laserfiche WebLink

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August 19, 2025 Santa Ana City Council 20 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA 92701 Re: Agenda Item#13 Dear Mayor Valerie Amezcua and Santa Ana City Council Members, We write in support of Agenda Item #13. We continue to support public funding for deportation defense, especially in cities like Santa Ana with large immigrant and refugee populations. Funding for legal services remains a persistent need that we are heartened to see the City continue to prioritize. In particular,we are supportive of the 1-year contract with extension provisions. This process will maintain service continuity while creating regular opportunities to reassess how the immigration legal defense fund can best meet residents' needs. The immigration policy and law landscape continues to shift dramatically, so it is important that there are regular opportunities for evaluation and implementation of potential changes if needed. We also continue to emphasize the need for robust and routine reporting requirements. The current provider for the City of Santa Ana immigration legal defense fund provides quarterly reports regarding clients supported by the fund that include summary information on top countries of birth; gender; recent employment; parental status; cases closed; and cases that remain open. In addition to current data reported, other information to report should include, to the extent legally and practicably possible: summary data on LGBTQ+ identification; summary data of client race and ethnicity; information on cases accepted vs. not accepted; detained vs. non-detained cases; referrals of non-accepted cases; newly opened cases vs. ongoing cases;types of cases; staffing data. Moreover, the City should also ensure that reports or other data furnished by the provider is published in a timely, accessible manner. One way to do this would be to aggregate all past quarterly reports in one location, such as one web page with all years of reports available for download, rather than only featuring the latest available report. Making these reports publicly accessible in one place will help inform the public and provide advocates with a resource about the impact of the fund over time. Lastly,we again urge the City to dedicate funds not just for legal service provision, but also for outreach and community education. While legal representation is critical, outreach and community education are equally as important to ensure that impacted community members-including Southeast Asian refugees who are disproportionately targeted for deportation and face unique legal challenges- have the tools to make informed decisions for themselves and know about available resources. Sincerely, Harbor Institute for Immigrant & Economic Justice Orange County Justice Fund