Marin supervisors allocate $500K to aid immigrants
March 5, 2025
By Richard Halstead | rhalstead@marinij.com | Marin Independent Journal
UPDATED: March 4, 2025 at 5:51 PM PST
Reacting to the Trump administration’s moves on immigration policy, Marin County supervisors allocated $500,000 Tuesday to provide support services for migrants.
The supervisors approved the expenditure without discussion as a consent calendar item. An accompanying resolution said the money is for “services including but not limited to legal representation, family support services, and outreach and education.”
“Marin County is committed to all who are in need and are eligible for services, regardless of immigration status,” the resolution said.
The resolution delegates authority to Derek Johnson, the county executive, to enter into contracts with local providers.
“No decision has been made about which agency/community partner will be awarded funding and will be through a process to be determined by the County Executive’s office,” Johnson said in an email.
Omar Carrera, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Canal Alliance in San Rafael, said, “We commend the county’s leadership and funding for families with mixed immigration status.”
“Now, more than ever, this funding is critical,” he said. “Practicing immigration law during a Trump administration is very challenging due to constant and sudden changes in policies and procedures, which consume staff time.”
Laura McMahon, executive director of Legal Aid of Marin, said that since the beginning of the year, “we’ve had an overwhelming amount of calls for assistance from community members seeking immigration legal services.”
“Folks who lack legal status are hoping to get help to protect themselves and also their families,” she said.
McMahon said parents are particularly concerned about what will happen to their children if they’re separated.
“They want to make sure that they’re properly taken care of,” she said.
McMahon said Legal Aid of Marin isn’t representing anyone directly threatened with deportation, but last month the organization came to the aid of a resident whose landlord threatened to report them to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We sent the landlord a cease and desist letter,” McMahon said.
She said that under California law, a landlord or employer who threatens to report their tenant or employee to ICE could face criminal prosecution.
Johnson announced he would recommend the allocation on Feb. 26 at the end of a three-day budget workshop that supervisors conducted for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
During the workshop, members of Parent Voices Marin, an advocacy organization for affordable child care and early education, lobbied supervisors to supply financial support for undocumented immigrants.
“As immigrants, I want you to know that we are living in fear, and we are also in fear for our children,” Jaqueline Hernandez of San Rafael told supervisors. “We would like to request that a fund be established in order to help our children.”
Maria Ek said, “I am a mom of three children. I am also an immigrant, and every day now we are seeing in our community that we’re facing new threats. I appeal to you as human beings to take us into account.”
Amarantha Silva, a community organizer with Parent Voices Marin, made several requests of the supervisors.
“The first one,” she said, “is to create a fund for immigrant support that is holistic, not just legal support.”
Silva said money is needed for rent support and clothing. She also said funding is needed to increase the availability of child care.
“I was on the waiting list for five years,” Silva said. “So I know what the struggle is for child care.”
The resolution allocating the $500,000 recounted previous steps county supervisors have taken to ensure that undocumented immigrants receive access to government services. It said the county is not helping U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement identify undocumented residents.
In March 2017, shortly after Donald Trump began his first term as president, supervisors adopted a resolution that committed the county to “provide essential services to all county residents regardless of immigration status.”
The resolution also directed “the Department of Health and Human Services to review its confidentiality policies to better ensure that eligible individuals are not deterred from seeking services or engaging with county services based on immigration status.”
At the time, the county estimated that there were 16,000 undocumented immigrants living in Marin, about 6% of the county’s population. Johnson said he does not have a current figure.
In September 2020, shortly before the presidential election, supervisors adopted another resolution reaffirming the county’s support for Senate Bill 54, which limited the ability of local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with ICE. It also reaffirmed the direction to county staff to provide all services regardless of immigration status.
The resolution also directed county departments to “review their confidentiality policies and identify any changes necessary to ensure that information collected from individuals is limited to that necessary to perform agency duties and is not used or disclosed for any other purpose.”
Federal data are available on the number of unaccompanied immigrant children arriving in Marin each year. When migrants under the age of 18 present themselves at the border or are detained while crossing, they are initially housed in a shelter operated by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Later they are sent to localities where a family friend or family member has offered to sponsor them.
According to the federal Administration for Children and Families, which manages the refugee office, 214 unaccompanied immigrant children were sent to Marin from October 2023 to September 2024. From October 2022 through September 2023, 281 unaccompanied immigrant children arrived in Marin.
From 2014 to 2020, Marin resettled 1,039 unaccompanied minors, an average of about 148 per year. In 2021, supervisors allocated $410,000 to pay nonprofits to provide services to the children.
