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City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly is requesting $750,000 in city funds to defend people arrested and facing deportation in the Portland area.
"The hostile environment created by our federal administration has required us to give more of ourselves in order to stand united against attacks on our immigrant communities," she wrote in a letter today, announcing her budget request to the Welcoming/Inclusive/Sanctuary City Task Force, which recommended the policy.
The task force, which was established after city passed a resolution last year designating Portland a welcoming, inclusive and sanctuary city, last month recommended legal defense as a its "highest-priority" item.
"At a minimum, funding should support five attorneys and three paralegals to begin building the capacity for providing universal defense to all immigrants and refugees who are detained or put into deportation proceedings," according to the task force recommendations.
The proposal would vastly expand the funding the city has made available for immigration legal defense.
To help fund the program, Eudaly is withdrawing a proposal for a separate budget request for resiliency at the Office of Neighborhood Involvement.
