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Alameda County hears pleas from Asian and Southeast Asian service providers as deportation risk rises
Summary
Local nonprofits described rising deportation impacts on AAPI and Southeast Asian communities, urged county funding for legal and mental‑health wraparound services, and called for partnerships as hotlines and removal‑defense needs surge.
Service providers and community organizations told the Together for All Ad Hoc Committee that Alameda County’s Asian and Southeast Asian communities face acute risks from recent federal immigration enforcement and need scaled legal and culturally specific mental‑health support.
Ben Wong of Asian Health Services said a new Oakland working group of organizations serving Asian immigrants and refugees flagged that roughly 18% of ICE arrests in the Bay Area between January and July this year involved Asian American and Pacific Islander residents. "There is over 18% of ICE arrests in the San Francisco region this year between January to July that are of Asian American and Pacific Islander descent," Wong said, and he urged deeper coordination with county‑funded initiatives such as ACORD and other rapid‑response networks.
Community mental‑health and advocacy organizations described the strain on services and the limits of current funding. Mona Afari of the Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants (CERI) said her organization serves thousands with trauma‑informed care but has lost funding for some programs and lacks dedicated removal‑defense resources. "We do not have funding for this program," a CERI representative said, noting the group retains a small staff to provide wraparound aid.
Speakers described direct service work including accompaniment to ICE check‑ins, court hearings, social‑bio packets for pardon applications, and culturally accessible counseling. Candice of SIRI (Unbreakable Roots) described helping 47 directly impacted community members this year with legal navigation, mental‑health care and accompaniment to check‑ins.
API Legal Outreach and other groups said language capacity and in‑person legal help are crucial in habeas and removal‑defense work. Victoria Hartanto of API Legal Outreach described expanding habeas litigation that has helped secure release for detained clients and stressed the need for more attorneys with language access.
Several presenters asked the county to consider targeted funding for removal defense, multi‑lingual legal services, and trauma‑informed mental‑health care. Supervisor Marquez thanked the presenters and said committee offices will follow up; the interim Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs will be tasked with assessing gaps and coordinating future funding decisions.
What’s next: committee members said they will forward the presentation to the full Board and work with the interim office to identify gaps and funding options to support legal representation and culturally specific mental‑health services.
