Support immigrants against mass deportations in sanctuary cities - A San Francisco model

Echo report published in the San Francisco Examiner (California) newspaper by Adam Shanks:

San Francisco immigrants, advocates prepare for Trump’s return

In the weeks leading up to the presidential election, speculation and analysis about the immigrant and minority votes — particularly in key swing states — ran rampant, with many suggesting they could decide the winner between the former guy Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Then, overnight, immigrants and their advocates quickly pivoted to control the fallout from Trump’s election victory, given that he has pledged to carry out mass deportations and threatened sanctuary cities such as San Francisco.

A spectrum of opinions and outlooks exists among leaders in The City (San Francisco) about how to react, and how afraid to be, 😱😰after a second Trump election victory.

While a playbook of sorts was drafted and put to use during his first administration, there is concern whether San Francisco has the resources at hand to fend off Trump’s plans, which had already escalated at the tail end of President Joe Biden’s administration.

Several immigrant-defense organizations told The San Francisco Standard this month that they are under-resourced for the task they anticipate under Trump, who has indicated on social media that he will (unlawfully❗) deploy the U.S. military to help carry out mass deportations. (Meanwhile, California's farmers are justifiably worried about the agricultural labor pool being depleted.)

At a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, Mayor London Breed — who leaves office in January — trumpeted her administration’s work to improve resources for immigrants. It has expanded the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs and increased immigrant legal defense funding for programs such as CARECEN SF by 40%, Breed said.

The City is also working to prepare for threats under Trump’s administration, she said.

“My hope is that so much of this rhetoric and the worst does not come to pass,” Breed said. “But either way, I believe in this city as one that will always stand for immigrants and their families, and not give in to fear.”

But even if much of Trump’s plans does not come to pass, some advocates say they’re already struggling.

“The truth is, our capacity to do removal defense cases has been very, very limited, and I think if you talk to any provider in SF they would say the same thing,” said Adrian Tirtanadi, executive director of Open Door Legal, a nonprofit that aims to offer universal access to legal assistance to those who need it.

Open Door Legal estimates it would need more than an additional $2 million in annual funding just to meet the current demand from people currently under deportation proceedings. In San Francisco Immigration Court, people with representation are more than five times more likely to successfully avoid deportation, Tirtanadi said.

“If we just let immigrants enforce their rights under current immigration law, you would dramatically slow the number of people being deported,” Tirtanadi said.

Economic calculus will come into play. The City will be pushed to expand funding for immigrant-support programs at the same time it attempts to close a massive budget deficit. But immigrant advocates stress that the risk of doing nothing is great, and that the economic consequences of mass deportations would be severe in a city where about one third of the population is foreign-born.

There were about 40,000 undocumented immigrants living in San Francisco as of 2021, according to the California Immigrant Data Portal, a project of the University of Southern California’s Equity Research Institute.

But that number only represents a fraction of the people who could be affected by mass deportations and other policies proposed by Trump. An additional 26,000 U.S. citizens in San Francisco were living with people who are undocumented, according to the same data set.

There are political factors for San Francisco leaders to consider, as well, and some might suggest The City proceed with caution. San Francisco — by virtue of being home to House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and a longtime progressive bastion — already has a target on its back and need not be thrust further into the path of Trump’s agenda.

Francisco Ugarte, managing attorney of the Immigration Defense Unit in the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, said he remains optimistic about San Francisco’s ability to resist Trump.

“We have been through a similar period in history where there were promises of sweeping human-rights abuses and mass deportation,” Ugarte said. “This is going to be different, clearly, but what we learned is that San Francisco stood up, a lot of these local political disputes kind of sifted away, and we unified as a city around attacks on people who were not born in the United States.”

He pointed to the unmet goals of the first Trump administration such as the construction of a massive border wall and end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

“It’s going to be bad, no doubt there’s going to be a lot of fear,” Ugarte said. “We don’t know what’s coming, so it’s hard to prepare — but we will be there.”

Under the first Trump administration, San Francisco took quick legal action that successfully blocked him from implementing an executive order that would’ve pulled funding from sanctuary cities.

Trump has proposed a different path this time, hoping Congress will adopt legislation that would effectively accomplish the same goal as his original executive order. He’s likely to have a more receptive ear to that proposal on Capitol Hill, as Republicans will control both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Already, community-based organizations in San Francisco and the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs are preparing by highlighting resources — many of which were launched under the first Trump administration — for immigrants and their families.

That includes a rapid-response hotline through which ICE activity in San Francisco can be reported. The network of nonprofits that handle the call line work to vet reports, and can offer legal assistance to anyone detained by immigration officials.