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Supervisor Campos urges city funding to provide legal representation for unaccompanied immigrant children
Summary
Supervisor Campos introduced a resolution and cited a budget analyst report estimating San Francisco's share of the need for counsel for unaccompanied children; he proposed a supplemental request of $1.2 million per year for two years to fund legal representation and urged regional cooperation.
Supervisor Campos told the board that the city faces a substantial need to provide full-scope legal representation for unaccompanied immigrant children appearing in San Francisco immigration court and introduced a measure and supplemental funding request to address the issue.
Campos described visits to immigration court and said many juveniles appeared without legal counsel. He summarized a budget and legislative analyst report the office released estimating a significant caseload increase and concluding that the region needs coordinated funding to ensure counsel for youths. Campos said the analysts estimated roughly 2,533 cases for the fiscal period in question and that an estimate of San Francisco's share (approximately 20 percent of that need) underpinned a supplemental request of $1,200,000 for each of the next two years to support legal representation for children residing in San Francisco.
Campos said the request reflects the city's share of a regional problem and that the Board and mayoral staff were coordinating with county and state efforts, including a state appropriation (SB 1476) of $3,000,000 for nonprofit legal services and Attorney General activity to convene private funders. He said city funding would likely be used to leverage pro bono services and cited past local experience with a "right to civil counsel" pilot for eviction defense that stretched public dollars into much larger pro bono capacity.
Campos asked for support for the supplemental funding request and for conversation in the Budget and Finance Committee on how the city should respond.
