Amid increased ICE activity, advocacy groups seek additional funding from Alameda County

ICE raids across California have struck fear into Alameda County s immigrant population taxing the budgets and tools of advocacy groups and community defenders tasked with protecting them The Alameda County Board of Supervisors appropriated million in March to reestablish an immigration enforcement hotline add immigration population defenders and provide Know Your Rights trainings But the immigrant area s necessities have outpaced advocates response to the aggressive ramp-up of immigration enforcement by the federal cabinet according to advocates We re very grateful for the county s expenditure to date but I think we all know is not enough to set up an infrastructure that covers an entire county announced Monique Berlanga executive director for the legal defense nonprofit Centro Legal de la Raza Everything we ve built so far can and will be tested in the upcoming months Anxiety has escalated for the more than undocumented immigrants who live in Alameda County as Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stepped up its activity In Livermore Miguel Lopez a father who had lived in the country for years was deported on June to Mexico hours before a judge issued a temporary restraining order that ordered federal authorities to keep him in the country ICE s enforcement activity in the Bay Area has been limited in comparison to other metropolitan areas like Los Angeles where protesters faced off with ICE agents during an operation to capture illegal immigrants outside a Home Depot However despite President Donald Trump s administration declaration that it would focus on deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records ICE appears to be casting a wider net Related Articles New insight into Texas family detention reveals adults fighting kids for clean water All I want is to get married Vallejo woman whose fianc is stuck in Iran laments trip ban Letters California must expand reproductive care in ERs Santa Clara County s Rapid Response Structure sees a surge of calls amid fears of ICE raids Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil freed from immigration detention When a federal agency shows no respect for due process violates domestic and international laws ignores court orders and strikes access to counsel offers zero transparency when it matters the majority of and engages in brute and excessive force against unarmed civilians it fosters no confidence that that mentioned federal agency s intention is to act justly and humanely announced Raha Jorjani the deputy population defender and supervisor of the office s immigration unit These enforcement actions have strained the support of district partners like Centro Legal de La Raza Berlanga announced The county s ICE hotline which partners with Centro Legal de la Raza is limited to weekday hours between a m and p m which makes responding to calls on the weekends hard she disclosed Last week there was particular FBI activity at the NewPark Mall in Newark and the hotline was getting calls frantic calls thinking that this was going to be another LA Berlanga mentioned We re not necessarily sure that our recommendation would be to commit to a ongoing call line but what we do need is additional funding or flexible funding to allow us to adapt with enforcement patterns Supervisors Elisa Marquez and Nate Miley the members of the Residents Protection Committee appeared responsive to the appeals for supplementary information during the meeting But as the Board of Supervisors convenes on Monday to plan the county s budget for the next year they will need to consider how much more the county can put toward immigration defense when approximately of its budget comes from the state and federal executive We don t know when or if raids will come to us but we need to be prepared Marquez mentioned