Costa Mesa will launch an immigration legal defense fund and support a class action lawsuit challenging federal raids in Southern California.
The City Council voted 5-2 on Tuesday, Sept. 9, to establish a $200,000 fund and to contract with the Immigration Defense Law Center to support immigrants impacted by widespread deportation sweeps. The city will also work with the Public Law Center.
City staffers will flag the council with an expenditures report when there’s $50,000 remaining in the defense fund, officials said, which is open to outside donations. City employees and their families are eligible for assistance, too.
“To me this is a matter of access to justice, plain and simple,” Mayor John Stephens said, adding that immigrants detained for allegedly violating immigration law often have no money for legal representation. “The government is taking them, but the government is not defending them.”
The council also decided on Tuesday that the city will submit an amicus brief in support of a class action lawsuit, filed by the ACLU and immigrant advocacy groups, that alleges U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have used excessive force and racial profiling while making warrantless arrests — which Department of Homeland Security officials say is untrue and federal agents use proper procedure when conducting their operations.
Roberto Herrera, a leadership development director for Resilience OC, applauded the creation of the legal defense fund, which he said will be crucial given the Supreme Court’s Monday, Sept. 8, ruling that lifted restrictions on immigration raids in the region.
“The city of Costa Mesa must take action to protect its citizens against warrantless immigration arrests and unlawful evictions,” he said.
The City Council also voted to look into creating a rental registry to track rental properties and at-fault evictions, and to develop ways to improve outreach to landlords and tenants.
Immigrant rights advocates strongly supported the measure, noting that a majority of the city’s immigrant population is renters who would benefit from more transparency about eviction proceedings.
Start-up costs of the registry could be close to $300,000 in the first year, officials said, with annual software costs around $85,000.
“This question of the pressure that ICE enforcement specifically has put on renters is known across the state,” Councilmember Andrea Marr said, supporting the registry. “Budgets are statements of our values, and this is what our values are.”
Councilmember Mike Buley, who opposed the proposal, said the city was taking a “misguided approach” in injecting itself between landlords and tenants.
“You have a lot of mom and pop rentals who are one missed payment away from losing their investment properties, and that middle-class just continues to get squeezed,” he said.
The council also ratified a $100,000 donation previously earmarked for immigrant aid. The funding has been equally disbursed to two local nonprofits, Someone Cares Soup Kitchen and Enough for All, which will provide impacted families with daily meals and food boxes, as well as cash assistance for rent, utilities and other necessities.