Santa Clara County church commits funds to immigration defense

Faith leaders across Santa Clara County are committing money to immigration legal defense services as advocates warn families continue to face fear and uncertainty around detention and deportation.

More than 120 donors across the Presbytery of San Jose are giving $15,000 to local immigration advocacy groups to support legal aid services for people facing deportation. Funds will be split between Amigos de Guadalupe Center for Justice and Empowerment in Santa Clara County and the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County. The money will go toward legal services, advocacy and family support.

The initiative is taking place as San Jose plans to reduce its spending on immigration defense services by half due to budget cuts — and as efforts mount to combat a federal facility planned in South County being built by a company with ties to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Surrounded by wildflowers in a small garden outside Westhope Presbyterian Church in Saratoga, faith leaders and immigration advocates on Wednesday spoke about their efforts to help local immigrants and their families.

The Rev. Neal Presa, executive presbyter of the Presbytery of San Jose, said the fundraising effort grew out of concerns from local congregations about the impact immigration enforcement fears are having on local families. Presa added that church members and volunteers have accompanied people to immigration hearings, participated in demonstrations and supported families navigating immigration proceedings.

“It is unacceptable to us, as people of faith, to stand back, to be indifferent or to not do anything,” Presa said at the event.

While San Jose has not seen mass raids like those in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Santa Clara County has seen targeted arrests of more than 200 people, according to immigration advocates. For local immigrants, getting access to basic services has been laced with precaution to avoid encounters with ICE. Not only are people skipping appointments, not showing up to school and avoiding going to grocery stores, people have also refrained from visiting parks, places of worship, restaurants and community events. Some undocumented residents have chosen to self-deport.

“As a first-generation Mexican American in this country, I know how hard my parents worked as immigrants,” Maritza Maldonado, executive director of Amigos de Guadalupe, said. “We serve the poor of the poor in Silicon Valley.”

The Santa Clara County-based nonprofit is part of the Rapid Response Network, a coalition of groups and volunteers working to protect immigrants that includes Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN), Asian Law Alliance and more.

Maldonado said advocates want local governments to continue investing in immigration legal aid services, as community needs remain urgent. A $1 million allocation for immigration legal aid from San Jose last year helped expand rapid-response legal services by adding three legal providers to support immigrant families facing detention or deportation proceedings.

“If (city funding) was needed last year, it’s even more urgent this year,” Maldonado told San José Spotlight.

The Rev. Eric Swanson at Westhope Presbyterian Church said the fundraiser began after conversations with Amigos de Guadalupe about the organization’s most urgent needs. He said faith communities should continue supporting vulnerable neighbors through advocacy, accompaniment and direct assistance.

“(Amigos de Guadalupe) said, ‘We just need money to find legal representation for people who are unjustly being imprisoned and have no legal representation at all,'” Swanson told San José Spotlight. “It’s a huge miscarriage of justice.”

Contact Maryanne Casas-Perez at [email protected] or @CasasPerezRed on X.