During deliberations on the FY 2017/18 Recommended Budget, the Board of Supervisors was presented with the attached 'Draft Proposal for Funding: Contra Costa County Immigrant Legal and Education Partnership’ (Attachment A). The Contra Costa Legal and Education partnership was a "place-holder" name for the first draft proposal for a rapid response network in Contra Costa County. The draft proposal was modeled after the Alameda program, but it was intended simply to get the conversation started - there is, as yet, no existing organization behind it. The proposal is to form the partnership between the County of Contra Costa, service providers, and private funders.
The County currently funds one Deputy Public Defender as an immigration attorney in the Public Defender's office. The attorney is tasked with ensuring that the County provides constitutionally effective immigration advice to all of our non-citizen clients who are charged with criminal offenses. The draft proposal is to enhance these services by creating a rapid response network for Contra Costa County. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors and City of Oakland recently took a similar action to allocate funding to the efforts of an Alameda partnership.
This report is the first in what will likely be a series of reports to the Finance Committee and is intended to begin the discussion of considerations when assessing whether a rapid response network is needed, what components to consider when establishing a local network, and lessons learned by Counties that are currently operating programs.
Existing Program Details/Follow-up Needed
The first step is to determine if a program is needed within Contra Costa. In making that determination, a review of enforcement needs to be conducted to determine how immigrants are detained within the County. Generally, immigrants are detained at Trigger sites: airports and borders, applying for benefits, Amtrak & Greyhound, raids; and/or through the Criminal Justice System: stopped by police, before, during, and after criminal sentence. Detailed information must be developed for Contra Costa.
A rapid response system is a network that can be activated to provide services. In order to determine our needs we should verify what the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity is in Contra Costa and thoroughly review existing programs – not reinvent the wheel. There are several excellent models available.
The San Francisco model was established by the City and County of San Francisco after significant raids that occurred in 2008. The hotline was established specifically for Raids. The model has five basic elements:
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Hotline 24/7 – Spanish (70%), Arabic, Chinese
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Raid Verification
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Legal Observation
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Attorney Activation
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Accompaniment & social services support
The Counties of Santa Clara and Alameda recently allocated county funding towards larger programs. MigraWatch in the South Bay is about to launch a 24-hour hotline for families targeted by ICE to request a legal observer. Once the hotline is up and running, families targeted by ICE will be able to call the number and report their address to a dispatcher, who sends text messages to registered observers within a few-mile range.
The first objective to verify the raid. If the report is a false alarm, the observers tell the dispatcher, who relays the message to the community. If a raid is identified, the observers collect as much information as possible.
It is not the mission of MigraWatch to engage with officers on the scene, but rather to document activities. The purpose is to develop documentation and eyewitness accounts which can greatly affect the outcome of the ensuing deportation case. People targeted by ICE must also know their rights. In addition to training legal observers, MigraWatch educates families of undocumented immigrants.
Prior to the addition of this new funding, Santa Clara had a MigraWatch and Alameda had no established program. Staff contacted the County of Alameda regarding their program. The County does not yet have a contract and the program is not yet established. Staff will continue to follow-up on the details of that program. San Mateo currently uses a MigraWatch model.
Additional Information/Actions Pending:
Assembly Bill 493 is currently pending in the State of California seeking to provide stronger protections for illegal immigrants. The bill, introduced by Assembly Member Jones-Sawyer on February 13, would allow an illegal immigrant to report a crime without fear of deportation. Existing law prohibits a peace officer from detaining an individual exclusively for any actual or suspected immigration violation or reporting or turning the individual over to federal immigration authorities whenever an individual who is a victim of or witness to a hate crime, as defined, or who otherwise can give evidence in a hate crime investigation, is not charged with or convicted of committing any crime under state law. This bill would enact a prohibition similar to the one described above that would be applicable whenever an individual is a victim of or witness to a crime, or otherwise can give evidence in a criminal investigation, without regard to whether the crime is a hate crime. On June 29, the bill was read for the third time, amended, and ordered to second reading.
Attachment B is a list of resources and publications related to immigrant communities in the East Bay, compiled by Mr. Saidi. An important educational tool is the “lessons learned and best practices” webinar that is linked in the attached document. The webinar details best practices and describes steps in replicate existing models.
Next Steps
Staff will continue to monitor the progress of Alameda County's program and other programs in the State and report back to the Finance Committee in December. A much more detailed report is needed to provide enough information for the Board to decide if a program is needed and if so, which aspects and options from established programs to implement in Contra Costa. Things to consider are: what is our reason for having a rapid response program; what are our goals and expectations; are we hoping to connect people to services or just provide information and or training. Training can help to build capacity including training for planning in case a family member is detained.
If a program were to be funded in the next budget cycle (FY 2018/19), the Finance Committee would need to make that request to the full Board of Supervisors by the beginning of February, 2018. |