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County accelerates immigrant legal aid and multilingual outreach; standby guardianship bill moves to April hearing
Summary
County officials described expedited contracts and communications spending to expand immigrant legal services, named a proposed standby guardianship bill to protect mixed‑status families and said $5 million in board‑approved funds are being allocated quickly to legal providers and a multilingual outreach campaign.
The Children, Seniors and Families Committee heard an update from the Office of Immigrant Relations and the Division of Equity and Social Justice on the county’s response to immigration‑related legal needs and outreach.
Deputy County Executive David Campos and colleagues summarized actions taken after the board approved a $5 million county fund to prepare for immigration enforcement changes. Campos said county staff expedited applications and recommended an initial allocation of about $1.4 million to address immediate legal gaps, and that an additional renewal process for existing programs could raise the county’s total immigrant legal services funding to approximately $6.3 million, producing roughly $8 million in county support when combined with the expedited awards.
Campos also said the county will launch an initial multilingual communications campaign — in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and Tagalog — tied to Know‑Your‑Rights resources and public‑health messaging. “We purposely did not want to do a formal RFP because it would take months to do that. We wanted to hit the ground running,” Campos said, describing work with an agency used during prior campaigns.
The office also described legislative advocacy. Campos said the county supported a standby guardianship bill carried by Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin that would let parents name a standby guardian for children who might be detained or deported; a hearing was scheduled for April 29. County staff said they are meeting with community leaders to minimize potential unintended consequences and to line up witnesses for the hearing.
Deputy County Executive Casey Halkin told the committee the county is tracking community fears after an April incident in which ICE agents detained a father in public and briefly separated him from his children; local leaders said agents’ uniforms appeared similar to local law enforcement uniforms, which heightened alarm. Halkin emphasized county preparedness: DFCS has not taken children into custody in response to recent immigration actions, but the department has identified resource families and will pursue family‑finding before placing children outside their networks if parents are detained.
Halkin urged mixed‑status families to complete caregiver affidavits and use county Know‑Your‑Rights materials. The county said it is coordinating outreach with schools, community clinics and legal providers and that several rapid‑response legal organizations and community‑based providers have received or will apply for expedited funding.
The committee received the report and supervisors asked staff to return with further briefings, data on affected families and continuing updates on contract awards and communications assets.
