SF legislation proposes city funding for immigrant legal representation
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN/KTVU) - San Francisco Supervisor David Campos today called for the city to back up its commitment to its sanctuary city policies with $5 million in funding to provide legal representation to immigrants fighting deportation.
Campos introduced legislation today calling for a $5 million supplemental budget appropriation intended to fund 10 attorneys, five paralegals and two clerks in the public defenders office and 13 attorneys and
6 outreach staffers in nonprofits. The funds would also cover a hotline and emergency response staffing.
The legislation, crafted in cooperation with Public Defender Jeff Adachi and immigration groups, comes on the heels of vows earlier this month by city officials including Mayor Ed Lee to defend San Francisco's sanctuary
city policies in the face of anti-immigrant policies and increased deportations.
President-elect Donald Trump has said he plans to deport an estimated 3 million immigrants with criminal records. He has also threatened to withhold federal funding from cities with sanctuary city policies, which
limit local law enforcement's cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Campos, who came to the country as an undocumented immigrant at the age of 14 with his family before later becoming a citizen, spoke passionately today about the need to provide representation for the estimated 44,000 undocumented immigrants living in San Francisco.
"This action allows us to take the first concrete steps to make sure that when we say we're a sanctuary we truly mean it," he said. "It's one thing to say it, it's another thing to make sure it happens."
Adachi, whose parents were incarcerated in Japanese detention camps during World War II without any legal recourse or representation, called the legislation a "human rights issue," and said it was something the
city should have done years ago.
"It is a shame that there are 1,600 people in detention proceedings right now in San Francisco and thousands more around the country who don't have a right to a lawyer," said Adachi."For those that say 'let's wait and see,' we can all see the writing on the wall and we have to act now," Adachi said of the incoming presidential administration.
"I was a detainee here in San Francsico in 2014." explained Isolda Matamoros Castro, who fled war-torn Nicaragua with family when she was just two years old. "The soldiers would come and they would round up our families and shoot us in the head... I lost a few uncles."
Castro is now raising her 12-year-old son Ilicio. While cleaning houses and attending nursing school Castro said one of her clients wrote her a bad check. Castro was sent to a detention facility on fraudulent check charges which were ultimately dropped. She said her time behind bars was dark. "I had a suicide attempt in there...I also became very sick had several panic attacks."
The city currently provides some funding to nonprofits providing legal representation to unaccompanied immigrant minors. In addition, the public defender's office employs an immigration attorney to help clients
facing deportation as a result of criminal charges.
The city's uncertain budget picture presents one potential obstacle for the legislation. The mayor's office is currently reevaluating the budget after voters failed to pass a sales tax measure that would have paid for homeless services and transportation improvement, and is also weighing the potential impacts of any federal funding cuts.