The San Diego News Desk has learned that at least 13 illegal immigrants received San Diego County taxpayer-funded legal counsel in aggravated felonies (see chart). These felonies can include murder, rape, human and drug trafficking, prostitution and money laundering.
Click Picture to Expand (Source: https://pra.sandiegocounty.gov/requests/24-2099)
A total of 34 illegal immigrants received free legal assistance in “charges related to criminal activity.” The San Diego County of Assigned Legal Council claimed not to have any information regarding what actual criminal activity took place.
In May 2021, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors created the San Diego County’s Immigrant Legal Defense Program (IRLDP). The first-of-its kind $5 million dollar per year program gives illegal immigrants free legal counsel funded by San Diego County taxpayers. Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer authored the measure, which the Board of Supervisors passed in a partisan vote, 3-2. Lawson-Remer is proud of funding illegal immigrants, as seen on her county website:
“San Diego County’s Immigrant Legal Defense Program (IRLDP) is working, just like Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer had envisioned when she authored and passed the policy in 2021. Nearly 800 San Diegans have received free…access to an attorney to represent them in removal proceedings.”
The statement equates “San Diegans,” legitimate citizens of California, with illegal immigrants. In fact, San Diego taxpayers have paid for free legal representation for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers facing deportation. Should San Diego taxpayers pay for legal representation for criminal illegal immigrants? Terra Lawson-Remer thinks so.
Supervisor Joel Anderson has proposed that the program be amended to prevent taxpayer money from supporting those who commit crimes and face deportation. Without three votes of the Board of Supervisors, however, his amendment will not pass. San Diego County is the only city and county along the 1,954-mile Mexican border paying $5 million a year in legal fees to support non-US citizens in federal courts. This financial anomaly also provides measurable incentives for immigrants—both good and particularly bad—to cross the border here.
Lawson-Remer has publicly promised to fund more than $5 million annually for the Immigrant Legal Defense Program, if needed. Her illegal immigrant legal fee spending has piled on to the accumulating tab San Diegans must pay for immigrants making the World’s Finest City their first stop in America.
On September 18, 2024, Supervisor Jim Desmond testified before the House Homeland Security Committee, and described how 600 people a day entered San Diego County—some 155,000 adults, mostly males between ages 18-35, between September 2023 to June 2024. Using federal Customs and Border Protection (CPB) data, Desmond highlighted the strain on local resources to house, feed, provide healthcare, and staff a temporary migrant center.
Desmond testified, “Border patrol has become their Uber driver from the border into the city of San Diego, and San Diego has become their nation-wide travel agents, at the taxpayer’s expense.” Most immigrants move on to other cities, yet San Diego has become the first ‘doormat.” The migrant center alone has cost San Diego $6 million dollars thus far.
Immigration falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government, yet border states, and particularly California, have had to absorb the initial costs of welcoming unvetted migrants into their communities. With a growing $68 billion state budget deficit, can Californians afford to pay for the Biden-Harris dereliction of duty at the border? With a growing $172 million city budget deficit, can San Diego citizens afford to pay for Terra Lawson-Remer’s non-citizen legal fees? In both cases, many would argue the answer is clearly “no.”
