Council to vote on emergency immigrant legal service funds today

Today, City Council will vote to approve emergency funding for immigrant legal services in the midst of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests and Texas becoming the first state in the union to signal its official support of President Donald Trump’s so-called “travel ban.” The measure would allocate an increase of $200,000 to Catholic Charities of Central Texas for things like family immigration legal services, asylum assistance and deportation defense. A press release from Council Member Greg Casar’s office read, in part, “Due to harshening federal immigration policy, there is an urgent need for legal services for immigrants and refugees in the Austin community,” and continued with Casar’s own words: “The federal government attacked Austin’s immigrant families last week. Now, it’s up to the City to step up and take care of the families that our federal leaders are targeting for political gain. … Austin will not back down on our principles of justice, public safety, and constitutional rights. We want everyone who comes to the US to be protected to the fullest extent of the law.”