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Residents of San Diego may soon be covering the costs of lawyers for illegal immigrants who are in federal custody and facing deportation.
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 on Tuesday to move on a $5 million, yearlong pilot program through which the local government would pay for attorneys to represent immigrants being held at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Otay Mesa Detention Center. People in custody could access lawyers for no cost through the county’s public defender’s office.
The move sets up San Diego County to be the first region on the southern border with Mexico to take it upon itself to cover the legal costs for people held in the county, though other localities away from the border have implemented similar initiatives.