Good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome to the meeting of the Alameda County Together for All Ad Hoc Committee.

Let's call the roll.

Supervisor Marquez present.

Supervisor Fortinado Baas.

Present.

So thank you everyone again for joining us.

We have a couple important items on our agenda.

So to get started, I'll just review our agenda, and we have a brief slideshow presentation to give an overview of our work as a committee as well as to present the uh two recommendations.

So today we have our first informational and action item, and that is a response plan for immigration enforcement activity in Alameda County.

We also have another item, which is a policy that restricts the use of county-owned and county controlled properties for immigration enforcement activity.

So for this item, we will hear a presentation from myself.

We will then go to Alameda County Health, Social Services, and we also have a guest on Zoom from Santa Clara County.

We'll have some discussion and take public comment before taking any potential action.

And then our second item today is an update on impacts of federal administration policies and budgets on Alameda County Asian communities and recommendations to address that impact.

And for this item, I'm really grateful that we have a number of community-based organizations who are joining us, including Asian Health Services, Asian Prisoner Support Committee, the Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants, New Light Wellness, and APIO, API legal outreach.

So we'll hear those presentations and have some discussion as well as public comment.

And then we will end the meeting with any comments related to items that are not posted on our agenda.

Okay, let's go to the next slide.

Just by way of background, the Alameda County Together for All or Act Ad hoc committee is a committee that was proposed in January and then formed with approval from the entire board, and we've been meeting approximately monthly since February.

And our purpose is to coordinate a response to federal policy changes and budgets that impact our communities.

In particular, we have been hearing about the impacts due to the federal administration's mass deportation agenda.

We have also been hearing about impacts due to HR1, the big brutal budget is what I call it.

So we've had hearings that have included immigrant and refugee rights, LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights, health care access, and food security.

And there's a number of items that we have brought forward to the full board as recommendations from our committee, together with Supervisor Marquez.

And that has led to funding by the full board with measured W Essential County Services funds in the tune of $7.5 million for immigrant and refugee rights, 16.5 million to food security, and 1.5 million to the LGBTQ community.

And before I go further with our agenda for today, I do want to ask my colleague, our vice chair, Supervisor Alisa Marquez, if you would like to share any opening or framing remarks before we get started.

Sure.

Thank you so much, Supervisor Fortunato Bass and your team for gathering all the presenters and information for today's meeting.

I really appreciate the collaboration and the partnership.

And just want to take a minute to acknowledge the trauma and the pain many of us are still going through alongside our community members that were impacted by the increased activity a few weeks ago.

Really sent everyone to react, and it's unfortunate that we're still getting these attacks for the federal administration, but I am really pleased of the work that we're doing here at the county to be prepared and respond because we know that there could be other threats to our community.

Want to highlight that myself and Supervisor Fortinato Bass yesterday attended, attended the belonging in the bay convening with 12 other counties.

So I know we'll be hearing from Santa Clara County later today, but just really want to thank everyone that organized that event so that way we can learn best practices, lessons learned, and our commitment here to strengthen our coordination in Alameda County.

Also, want to flag and want to really thank our county staff who responded swiftly.

And last week we just approved 450,000 for two positions for an interim office on immigrant and refugee affairs.

That's significant.

We've been waiting for that for a long time.

So just really want to commend county staff that made that possible.

And it's a parallel process, but my office is working to secure funding from philanthropy.

And so far, we've secured over a hundred thousand dollars to initiate a study that will include community engagement so that way we can have a more permanent office in the future.

So we're really tackling this in a phased approach.

We're doing what we can immediately, mid and long-term goals.

My primary focus is to sustain the work of this committee.

We really need to have that vital infrastructure in place.

So I just want to thank all the presenters today and everyone working in collaboration to defend every immigrant and refugee here in Alameda County.

So thank you all for the partnership.

Thank you for leading these efforts, Supervisor.

Thank you to our vice chair.

Um before, well, let's go to the next slide.

And before I introduce the two recommendations that are in front of us, I will also share a little bit of background and context.

You know, again, this committee, Alameda County Together for All is charged with a host of impacts because of this federal administration.

Today we are continuing to focus on immigrant rights, and as many of you know in Alameda County, one out of three residents is foreign born, and half of our children live in a household with at least one immigrant parent.

Back in 2016, the board declared Alameda County a welcoming county, recognizing the value of immigrant integration and ensuring our policies, programs, and initiatives reflect the diversity and strength of our community.

And as we all know, under the current president, ice raids are sweeping across the country, including elementary school graduations, workplaces, and even immigration courts here in the Bay Area.

And there's also been federal deployment in Los Angeles, DC, Chicago, and Portland.

And as we know, much of this activity is undermining our constitution, violating our basic rights, including the Fifth Amendment, which guarantees due process and access to legal counsel.

And these are fundamental rights, again, afforded by our constitution, not just for immigrants, but for every single one of us living in the US.

And so while this administration's mass deportation agenda is spreading fear, causing trauma and separating families, I'm really proud that our county is showing up for each other, that our communities are demonstrating courage, resilience, and an unshakable commitment to organizing and keeping each other safe.

And as I have been out in the community, we participated in three know your rights trainings.