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Advocates at Philadelphia hearing push for expanded immigrant legal defense funding as federal orders raise fear
Summary
Defense attorneys, nonprofit legal providers and immigration advocates told a City Council Committee hearing that Philadelphia must expand publicly funded immigration legal services and language access as new federal executive orders have heightened fear of detention and family separation.
Councilmember Roux Landau convened the Committee on Law and Government on Jan. 22 to hear testimony on Resolution 241090, which asks the committee to examine Philadelphia’s readiness to protect immigrants, LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized communities after recent federal executive orders.
Speakers from the Defender Association of Philadelphia, the Nationality Service Center and the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition urged the city to expand publicly funded immigration representation. A representative of the Defender Association said the agency plans to create an immigration defense unit with a proposed 13‑member staffing model and asked the city to absorb existing PIFUP (Pennsylvania Immigrant Family Unity Project) funding of $500,000 per year and provide an additional $800,000 to staff and operate the unit.
Steven Larin, deputy director of the Nationality Service Center, said universal representation matters: "Representation matters," he told the committee, citing national and local success rates for represented clients. Larin said PIFUP had represented more than 200 Philadelphia clients since 2019 and that detained clients with counsel had markedly higher success rates than those without. Julio Rodriguez of the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition asked the council to fund the Philadelphia Immigrant Family Unity Project at $1,300,000.
Speakers described how lack of counsel affects prosecutions, victims and families. Bob Lisenby, first assistant district attorney, told the committee that previous changes in ICE enforcement discouraged victims and witnesses from coming to court and warned that mass deportations would hurt public safety and “are anti‑family.” He provided the DA’s victim‑witness unit phone number and email for support services.
Community groups and legal providers also asked the council to invest in language access and wraparound services for newly arriving refugees and immigrant families. Larin noted refugee resettlement programs and humanitarian parole mechanisms have been suspended or restricted at the federal level and urged the city to bolster local services — including housing, English classes and job training — if federal funding contracts.
No formal appropriation or vote on funding was recorded during the hearing. Several organizations said they will submit written budget requests and asked council to consider those requests as part of the city’s upcoming budget process.
The hearing included multiple requests for expanded city funding or reallocation to support legal representation for people in removal proceedings and for emergency services to respond to increased enforcement. Councilmembers asked administration and agency witnesses to circulate executive orders and policy guidance to staff and council offices so elected officials and their staffs can better explain protections and limits of city policy to constituents.
Advocates said funding would reduce risk of family separation, improve public‑safety outcomes tied to victim participation and reduce downstream costs associated with detention and deportation.
