The San Diego LGBT Community Center supports the expansion of the Immigrant Legal Defense Program to protect unaccompanied minors. The San Diego Board of Supervisors will consider an item at their meeting on Tuesday, September 9, 2025, to provide unaccompanied minors access to due process and legal counsel in the County through the ILDP.

Join us in asking the Board of Supervisors to approve this important action.

Attend in person
Call in public comment
Submit your comments by Monday 9/8 by 5:00 p.m.

Take action with us!

Submit an e-comment and provide public comment via phone or in-person in support  of Item #16 during the 9/9 Board of Supervisors Meeting.

Submit your e-comment here: Click here

• Select Agenda Item # 16
• All comments must be submitted by Monday, 9/8 by 5:00pm.

GENERAL E-COMMENT TEMPLATE:

I support this important Board Letter to ensure all immigrants, including unaccompanied minors, have access to due process and legal counsel in the County through the ILDP.

Access to legal counsel is a fundamental civil right and a cornerstone of our justice system that should be afforded to everyone, regardless of who they are or where they came from.

E-COMMENT TEMPLATE WITH OPTION TO INCLUDE A PERSONAL STATEMENT:

I support this important Board Letter to ensure all immigrants, including unaccompanied minors, have access to due process and legal counsel in the County through the ILDP.

Access to counsel is a fundamental civil right that should be afforded to everyone.  

This matters to me because… [add personal statement]

The meeting to provide public comment on this item takes place on Tuesday, 9/9 and begins at 9:00am. There are two options to provide public comment at the San Diego County Board of Supervisor meetings:

1. In-person: The meeting will take place in the Board Chamber (Room 310) of the County Administration Center, 1600 Pacific Highway, San Diego, CA 92101. Free parking is available on Ash Street.
2. Via phone:  Call-in at 9:00am using the sign-up instructions you receive. Once it is your turn to speak, your phone will be unmuted.

Both options require you to sign-up prior to the meeting on Tuesday, 9/9, which you can do here: https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/bos/comment-at-board-meetings.html

Tips for signing up for public comment:

• When signing up to provide public comment, select Agenda Item # 16  and select “support” as your position.
• You will have 1 minute to speak.
• If you’re unsure of which Supervisor district you live in, you can find it here: https://gis-portal.sandiegocounty.gov/arcgis/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=e75d5c7a59ff4d6a90e862a481c3ba96

TEMPLATE PUBLIC COMMENT:

Hi Chair Lawson-Remer and Supervisors,

My name is ________ and I am a resident of district ___.  

I fully support this important Board Letter because it continues to strengthen the ILDP, by making it clear that unaccompanied minors are eligible for legal representation under the program. Advocates worked hard through the Invest in San Diego Families Coalition to establish a universal, merits-blind program in San Diego County that provides legal representation for all immigrants in detention.

All immigrants, including children, facing deportation are not provided court-appointed counsel in the immigration court system. They are often forced to face the complex immigration court system without legal representation. Legal representation can make the difference between someone being allowed to remain safely in the United States with their family or facing permanent family separation by deportation to potentially dangerous conditions.

This ILDP helps to close the gaps in legal representation and demonstrates the County’s commitment to due process and building stronger communities.

I urge you to support this important Board Letter to ensure all immigrants, including unaccompanied minors, have access to due process and legal counsel in the County.

Thank you.

SHARED VALUES:  

Access to legal counsel is a fundamental civil right and a cornerstone of our justice system.

• ALL people deserve due process regardless of who they are, where they were born, or what they have experienced.

PROBLEM:

All immigrants, including children, facing deportation are not provided court-appointed counsel in the immigration court system. They are often forced to face the complex immigration court system without legal representation.  

• These are extremely complicated and high-stakes proceedings. Legal representation ensures individuals can access rights they are entitled to under existing laws.  
• The U.S. government is always represented by experienced counsel in immigration  proceedings, causing a major imbalance in access to justice between the government and the immigrants it seeks to deport.
• Legal representation can make the difference between someone being allowed to remain safely in the United States with their family or facing permanent family separation by deportation to potentially dangerous conditions.
• Access to counsel for immigrants is especially critical during this administration, when federal immigration and asylum policy is constantly fluctuating and targeted for political gains. We must ensure this fundamental civil right is protected, regardless of who is in office.

Unaccompanied minors’ access to counsel is under attack, further underscoring the importance to explicitly lift up their inclusion in the ILDP at this moment.

• Beginning on October 1, 2025, hundreds of unaccompanied minors will be forced to stand before an immigration judge without an attorney.
• There have been two attempts by the Trump Administration this year to strip unaccompanied minors of their legal representation:

• In Spring 2025, the Trump Administration sought to terminate federal funding that provides legal representation to unaccompanied minors, putting approximately 26,000 minors’ legal representation at risk. While partial funding has been restored until September 30th of this year, it has still resulted in the cutting of federal contracts to legal service providers all over the country.

• In San Diego County alone, this resulted in 300 children losing access to their attorneys.

• In early September, the Administration attempted to deport dozens of Guatemalan minors whose immigration cases were still ongoing without providing them with the right to go before a judge or the right to legal representation.^[1]

• Access to legal counsel works.

• When represented, unaccompanied minors are more than seven times more likely to receive an outcome that allowed them to remain in the United States than those who did not have attorneys.^[2]

The Administration’s blatant disregard for immigrants’ due process rights and the upcoming implementation of HR 1 will result in more people being detained and in greater need of legal representation through the ILDP.

• This Administration has repeatedly attempted to, and in many cases, denied providing immigrants’ access to counsel and due process rights by deporting individuals in the midst of their immigration cases, without final removal orders, and without ever seeing a judge.
• With the upcoming implementation of HR 1, it will supercharge the deportation machine by providing $170 billion to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use over the next four years, making it larger than most militaries in the world.
• This means that immigration enforcement operations will continue to ramp up in our region, resulting in many more loved ones being impacted by detention and deportation and an increased need for the ILDP.

Detention and deportation harms all California families and communities.

• When a loved one is detained or deported, it affects an entire family and community. It also has significant harmful impacts on the mental and physical health of all members of the family.
• The detention or deportation of an immigrant parent often means the loss of the household’s primary income, disrupting their financial stability.

• Immigration-related arrests can cause household incomes to fall, on average, by half and can sometimes leave them without any income at all.3 

SOLUTION:

San Diego County’s ILDP makes our immigration court system more just and more humane by ensuring ALL immigrants in our community have access to basic due process.  

• Universal representation safeguards due process by allowing all individuals to access the rights they are entitled to under existing law.
• It gives people a fairer chance at seeking relief from deportation and rejoining or remaining with their families, regardless of who they are.
• Universal representation fosters greater confidence in the immigration system by creating mechanisms by which to hold the government accountable.
• This local safeguard is especially important in light of the upcoming implementation of HR 1 and federal immigration policies that are constantly in flux and subject to the agendas of changing presidential administrations.

ACTION:

We urge the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to support this Board Letter to ensure all immigrants, including unaccompanied minors, have access to due process and legal counsel in the County.