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Home My WebLink AboutCorrespondence - Item 13 Becerra, Alexis From: AnnaRae Goethe <AGoethe@lmmDef.org> Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2025 3:28 PM To: eComment Subject: Public Comment for 13. Agreement with Immigrant Defenders Law Center for Immigration Legal Defense Services Attachments: Outlook-Logo Desc Atteinf,Wiullfis eauffl or0naW fi-mn onutsde o'Ci y o�'Sanm Ana. Use ca ion when opelfing aflachmenu s or finks. Dear Santa Ana City Council, I am writing to you today to encourage you to approve the Agreement with Immigrant Defenders Law Center. It is critical that the City of Santa Ana continue to support the local immigrant community, especially now at a time where these communities are under attack. ImmDef is well positioned to continue representing local immigrants under this agreement. Our organization has now been around for ten years and has deep institutional knowledge. We assist children, adults, and families who are in immigration court with any relief for which they qualify. ImmDef is fairly unique amongst immigrant rights nonprofits because we are a "universal representation" office-- we take on our cases without regard for how likely it is that the client will win their case. We believe that everyone deserves to have excellent representation. ImmDef has nearly 170 staff members spread out amongst three offices — including one local office in Santa Ana. This structure means that we've got the staff on hand to meet the demands of this contract. Should our Santa Ana attorneys be too busy to take a case, one of our LA or San Bernardino attorneys will take the case and drive to Santa Ana to use our local office as a convenient meeting point. We do really wonderful, impactful work. This agreement with Santa Ana has in years past allowed us to provide real, meaningful help to Santa Ana families. We would love to continue serving the Santa Ana community under this new agreement. Best, Anna Rae Goethe I Directing Attorney* Pronouns: she/her/ella uguant Defenders Law Centeu 634 S. Spring Street, 10th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90014 Tel: (213) 290-2992 Fax: (213) 282-3133 qgge�he@jm_mdef.®r MMIGRAN'T )EFENDERS �4�' U AwA...J.M mAe.f.....o r.g .............. ....... ..... 0 00 *Licensed in Washington, Registered Legal Aid Attorney under MultiJurisdictional Practice Program in California. Confidentiality: This message is intended for the designated recipient(s)only and may contained privileged information. Dissemination of this email or its attachments to anyone other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this message in error,please notify the sender and destroy this message and all attachments. ,.A. Please consider the environment before printingthis e-mail Confidentiality:This message is intended for the designated recipient(s) only and may contained privileged information. Dissemination of this email or its attachments to anyone other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this message in error, please notify the sender and destroy this message and all attachments. 2 Alexis From: Mai Do <mai@harbohnstituteocorg> Sent: Tuesday, August 10' 2O2S3:S2PK4 To: e[omment Subject: Agenda Item #13 Attachments: 8.1025SA[[ Lettecpdf Atteinfimin: Thscmuilor�Oou1cdDmnoou1idcoICdyoISuo1u Ana, Use cuudoo when opcoioguUocbmco1 or finks. Dear Mayor Amezcua and City Cound|members, Please find attached a letter, signed by the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice and the Orange County Justice Fund, in support of Agenda Item#13 on the agenda for the upcoming August 19, 2025 City Council meeting. Best, Mai Nguyen Do Mai Nguyen Do They/Therm Research & 13mUioy Mamager HarborUmetiftAte for Ummmm�igrmmt&Ecmmmmm�iC Jmetice 91 mai(cD h a rbo ri n stituteoc.org 91www.harbori nstituteoc.o rq 91837 N Ross St,Santa Ana,CA 92701 �� Join our newsletter: Got the latest on immigration and economic policy in OC! z 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