L.A. Mayor To Reestablish Immigrant Affairs Office
CBS) LOS ANGELES Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa plans to revive a city office that helps new arrivals to Los Angeles get municipal services and participate in civic life without regard to their legal status, it was reported Wednesday.

Officials told the Daily News that Villaraigosa began planning the renewed operation before immigration reform became a national issue and before hundreds of thousands of L.A. residents took to the streets and demanded expanded rights for illegal immigrants.

The mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs has been inactive for a year, but Villaraigosa’s administration, noting more than 40 percent of the city's residents are foreign-born, said the service is needed to inform immigrants about city laws and how City Hall works, the Daily News reported.

The office was created in 2004 by then-Mayor Jim Hahn and approved by the City Council, using $125,000 in federal funds. Hahn didn't seek funding in the 2005 budget and the office disappeared.

The office will not deal with immigration legislation, officials told the newspaper.
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