SAN DIEGO (AP) — San Diego County has approved a plan to provide attorneys to immigrants facing deportation proceedings.
The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a $5 million, one-year pilot program. It would provide lawyers for free to those detained at Otay Mesa Detention Center, the local federal immigration detention facility.
San Diego will be the first southern border county in the U.S. to provide such legal representation.
Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, who proposed the measure, says it will help people navigate the complexities of the legal system, reduce a nationwide backlog of immigration cases and cut the public cost of detention.
