CINCINNATI — The City of Cincinnati’s Budget, Finance and Governance Committee unanimously voted to give $210,000 to help and protect the city’s immigrant community through the Immigration and Refugee Law Center Tuesday.
“What the Immigration Law Center is driving forward is access to legal representation and access to social services for folks who are in this incredibly vulnerable situation,” said Cincinnati City Councilman Ryan James, who spearheaded the motion.
WATCH: How the money will be used to support the city's immigrant community
The money would go to supporting three main services through the center: legal representation for those who have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), know your rights campaigns and social services.
“Going to work, getting their kids to school, these basic quality of living standards that you expect, that when you’re under legal fear, it’s very hard deliver to yourself and your family,” James said.
We asked Councilman James why he felt the need to propose a motion like this one.
“The most basic commitment that we owe to our residents is driving public safety, and I do say our residents and not our citizens because not everyone of the meaningful members of our community is a citizen of the United States,” James said.
In their proposal for the motion, the Immigrant and Refugee Law Center wrote that immigrants are essential to Cincinnati’s economy, but they face a number of barriers due to complex policy. The center said that a “strategic, coordinated investment is needed to ensure immigrant communities, workers and employers can fully contribute to Cincinnati's economic future.”
“This is taking our residents who vote in our communities, who contribute and pay taxes, and making sure that when they are in that worst day, that time of crisis, that they have legal representation and support,” James said.
The motion will also give $210,000 to “Access to Council,” which provides free legal representation to those facing eviction, and $70,000 to the West End Sports Bar and Grill for the final stages of development.
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At Tuesday’s meeting, another motion to allocate $300,000 to an Immigrant Emergency Fund from the Weather Reserve Fund was also proposed. That motion failed in a four-to-five vote.
We reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on the motion and money given to the Immigration and Refugee Law Center.
Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin responded, saying the motion is a "slap in the face to the 35% of Cincinnati children who live in poverty" and "those dollars should be going to their social safety net and helping those children."
"The American taxpayer generously offers those in this country illegally a $2,600 exit bonus and a free flight home," McLaughlin said.
