Politics
San Francisco proposal would add $1.7 million for immigrant legal aid and rapid response
Supervisor Jackie Fielder announced a proposal for $1.7 million in added immigration services funding as Bay Area enforcement activity rises. The measure is expected to come before the Board of Supervisors for a vote.
San Francisco supervisors are expected to consider adding $1.7 million for immigration legal services and the city’s rapid response network, Supervisor Jackie Fielder announced Tuesday, Oct. 20, as immigration arrests have increased across the Bay Area.
Fielder announced the proposed ordinance a day after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Milton Ramos Rodriguez in the city’s South of Market neighborhood. Photos provided by Rodriguez’s family show injuries he sustained during the arrest. The city’s immigration rapid response network said Monday that Rodriguez was receiving legal advice from the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office.
The proposal would direct the additional money to legal services for immigrants and the rapid response network, according to Fielder. The announcement did not specify when the supervisors would vote.
“We are here today because a demagogue in the White House is deploying ICE agents to terrorize and intimidate vulnerable communities ahead of an election,” Fielder said at City Hall.
ICE arrests in the Bay Area were up 60% as of August compared with February, according to an analysis of arrest data. Immigration advocates have also reported a wave of arrests across California.
The latest enforcement actions have included a separate incident in Alameda County over the weekend: ICE brought a person who had been arrested to Highland Hospital in Oakland. The hospital confirmed Tuesday that the person was still receiving care.
Fielder said the city should support immigrant communities with more than words. If approved, the funding would expand resources for residents seeking legal assistance and for the network that responds to immigration enforcement activity.