Los Angeles Approves $10M Expanded Justice Fund to Help Separated Children
Los Angeles has approved an expansion of the LA Justice Fund, which will now have $10 million to provide legal help to the migrant children who were separated from their families at the border.
"No child should endure the trauma of being separated from their parents or the terror of not knowing if they will ever see their families again," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a news release on Tuesday, July 3, as quoted by the New York Times.
The mayor, along with the Los Angeles City council and county Board of Supervisors led by Hilda Solis, had accurately predicted an immigration crackdown by President Donald Trump when they created the Justice Fund back in 2016.
What they may not have anticipated, however, is the lengths that the "zero immigration" policy at the border will go through by not just laying criminal charges on the illegal immigrant adults crossing the border, but also taking away their children from them.
To that end, the city has approved an expansion of the legal fund to $10 million, meant to provide legal assistance to the families separated by the immigration crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border by the Trump administration.
"We must do everything possible to reunify these families now," Garcetti said, adding that the city plans to do everything it can to help. "Los Angeles is answering cruelty with compassion — by giving hope and assistance to people in desperate need," he continued.
Supervisor Hilda Solis likewise confirmed that the Los Angeles County "will always stand with immigrants and asylum seekers," and that their families and children should be forced to face court hearings alone.
Solis added that the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement that estimates more than 100 children are in the Los Angeles area, held separate from their parents and guardians, according to the Business Insider.
