SAN DIEGO (SEPTEMBER 13, 2023) – Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, the author of the County’s Immigrant Legal Defense Program, is fighting back against her Republican colleagues on the Board of Supervisors who said, “we have enough criminals, we don’t need to import more of them.” Supervisor Lawson-Remer issued the following response: 

“Our constitution guarantees the right to representation and a fair day in court. The Immigrant Legal Defense Program is successfully achieving its purpose by helping immigration courts process nearly 800 cases, including women being trafficked, refugee children from Iraq and people who were beaten by the Colombian military; with legal outcomes ranging from dismissal to deportation. I will continue to support and fight for this program.   

“Comments about the program by my Republican counterparts on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors is akin to the racist remarks made by their leader Donald Trump who has called Mexican immigrants drug dealers and rapists, said Haitian immigrants have AIDS, and told Nigerian Immigrants to go back to their huts. I knew Jim and Joel were Republicans, but didn’t think they were Trump Republicans.”