Irvine will pilot an immigration assistance program for residents and employees impacted by federal immigration efforts; the City Council agreeing to front $100,000 to launch the endeavor.
The program will require hiring a dedicated intake officer to connect those in need of immigration assistance with legal representation and related resources, officials said. Each intake screening, which a city staff report estimated to cost about $300, would be covered by the city’s appropriated funds.
The council voted 5-2 at its recent meeting to establish the program, with councilmembers James Mai and Mike Carroll opposed. Mai said he “empathizes” with those impacted, but fears the city would be overstepping its local jurisdiction.
The council is set to receive reports every two months on the program’s progress and whether more city resources should be allocated.
“Thirteen (people) have been detained in Irvine that we know of. And I’ve heard that there could be more that we are unaware of,” said Councilmember Melina Liu, who was part of the team with Mayor Larry Agran and Councilmember Betty Martinez Franco that designed the program and brought it before the dais.
“It is very concerning, considering what’s happening all around the country, we could be next. So I want to make sure that we are ready with this program,” she said.
“I hope we don’t need to expand it, but need be, we’ll be able to expand it and afford everybody the basic legal protections,” she added.
Irvine is not the first city in the county to launch a legal fund for those impacted by amped up federal immigration enforcement efforts.
In September, Irvine neighbor Costa Mesa allocated $200,000 out of its general fund toward a legal defense fund and Anaheim put forth a similar amount to establish and sustain its Contigo initiative, which tracks immigration enforcement activity in the city and provides those impacted with grants and emergency assistance.
A program for Irvine residents has been on mind and in the works for months, Agran said, but the idea officially came before the dais for approval just a week after masked federal immigration officers reportedly detained three women in the parking lot of The Dots Corp, a printing and marketing business where they worked.
Around the same time, reports that office space being leased by the federal government near the 2000 block of Main Street in Irvine may be used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sparked protests and concern in the community, with Rep. Dave Min, who represents Irvine, even addressing some of those concerns at a town hall he held last week in the city.
“We can expect, this year, a scaling up of federal activity here that calls for stepping up our commitment to due process,” Agran said.
“People just don’t get picked up and carted away,” he said, “without a chance to be heard and without a chance to be connected to representation.”