LA immigrants with violent felony convictions left out of city’s $2 million legal fund


This Feb. 7, 2017, photo released by U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement shows foreign nationals being arrested this week during
a targeted enforcement operation conducted by ICE.
(Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP)

6/20/17, 12:32 PM PDT

Undocumented immigrants with violent felony convictions would be excluded from the city of Los Angeles’ $2 million portion of a legal defense fund for people facing deportation under a plan advanced by a Los Angeles City Council committee this week.

The Budget and Finance Committee on Monday advanced a proposal that would leave out those with violent felony convictions, as well as immigrants who have committed crimes related to human trafficking, child abuse, domestic violence and pimping.

The full 15-member City Council is expected to take up the issue on Friday.

The committee’s chair, Councilman Paul Krekorian, said one of the biggest issues is how criminal history should affect a person’s eligibility for the fund.

“There will undoubtedly be people who will be caught in the exclusion who, if we looked at them as individuals, rather than in a definitional way, we would say, ‘That’s a person we would really like to help, somebody who maybe had a violent offense 25 years ago in youth and since that time they’ve been an upstanding member of the community,’ for example,” he said.

“On the other hand, there are going to be people who have been convicted of felonies that aren’t defined as violent felonies in California, but I think most people would have very significant concerns about. Somebody who is a lifelong drug-dealer, for example, who would not be captured in the definition of violent felonies within California,” he said.

Los Angeles city leaders have set aside $1 million in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1, to pay for the first half of the $2 million contribution to a larger legal fund of up to $10 million, according to Assistant City Administrative Officer Yolanda Chavez.

The county could contribute up to $3 million to the fund, which will be managed by the nonprofit group California Community Foundation, with additional money coming from private foundations, such as the Weingart Foundation, the California Endowment and the James Irvine Foundation.

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