Santa Clara County will be the first in the region to fund efforts to release every Bay Area resident unlawfully detained by ICE.
County leaders are signing a roughly $200,000 agreement with La Raza Centro Legal, a nonprofit legal clinic based in San Francisco, to expand the Bay Area Habeas Network, whose attorneys work to secure habeas corpus proceedings for people in the custody of federal immigration authorities. Habeas corpus is a legal procedure requiring government officials to justify the detention of someone in their custody before a judge. Advocates said the county funding will help expand the number of attorneys to file habeas petitions.
“The hope is that the regional rapid habeas project can provide representation to anyone who is detained in the Bay Area and is eligible for habeas relief, which is a big goal,” David Campos, a deputy county executive and former San Francisco supervisor, told San José Spotlight. “The reason why you have seen a really great deal of success in cases where there is representation, is because the actions of ICE and Homeland Security have been out of line with due process. Because of the success of the habeas project, in some cases, ICE stopped some activities because they know if the matter goes to court, they are going to lose.”…