The Boston City Council voted unanimously last Wednesday at its regular meeting to hold a hearing to discuss how to set up a defense fund for those taken by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The hearing will look at setting up a scalable funding model for an immigrant emergency response fund, and according to sponsor and At-Large City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune, would be based on previous funding models set up during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said the work itself has already started.

“This filing memorializes work that is already underway at this moment to ensure that we are bringing all of our resources, people and given organizations together to be able to respond to current challenges that our immigrant communities are facing,” she said. “At a time when our communities are under a direct threat from shifting federal policies, Boston has to demonstrate leadership. We can’t afford to be reactive and we must be prepared, coordinated and united in our response.”

Louijeune said her office has been working with organizations across the Greater Boston area to create the fund, which would allow affected persons, particularly those current with temporary protected status, to tap into the fund for legal defense, family stabilization and emergency assistance.

Louijeune said the fund would leverage private dollars and donations from organizations already raising funds with public dollars.

“I want to thank my colleagues because last year during the budget we added money in the process, unanimously, to support legal entities that were supporting our immigrant communities,” she said. “This work builds off that work and that of philanthropy, where community-based organizations and families can quickly access resources they need. For example, in the event that Temporary Protected Status is ended, we’re going to have people who are having problems paying everyday bills, paying their mortgages, paying for utilities and this will help address that.”

Louijeune compared the endeavor to the SNAP gap last year and modeled it off of that. She said they have already partnered with the United Way and the Boston Fund to name a few.

“This is building off of that so that we have a coordinated response,” she said.

Louijeune added that they will be coordinating with legal, community and mutual aid organizations to let those affected know these resources are available.

“When federal immigration policies shift overnight, it affects our neighbors and it affects our residents,” she said.

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District 9 City Councilor and City Council President Liz Breadon pointed out that last fall, her district saw an ICE raid at the Allston Car Wash and took nine workers who had temporary legal status and were in the process of obtaining permanent legal status. Some were moved as far away as Texas, and Breadon said knowing where to find legal resources to, at the very least, contact and figure out what was happening, was a challenge.

“From my perspective as a district councilor, the most disorienting challenge was the speed with which everything occurred,” she said. “Our neighbors were kidnapped by ICE and then immediately whisked away to detention facilities, some as far away as Texas. ICE seems to create chaos in an attempt to prevent community members from responding effectively to their actions. In the wake of the ICE raid in November, however, local immigrant rights organizations in Allston-Brighton were prepared, organized and ready to support those detained and their loved ones.”

Breadon said she was incredibly grateful to Liberty, Unity, Community and Esperanza (LUCE) and the Brazilian Women’s Center during that incident.

“We know ICE isn’t done with Boston,” she said. “Just recently we saw someone kidnapped in (District 5 City Councilor Enrique) Pepén’s district. When incidents like this occur, every second counts.”

Breadon said the fund would allow residents to bring monies to bear quickly to react to such incidents.

Pepén said, for his part, he was thankful for the work Louijeune was doing reaching out to residents in his district and across the city, as well as the Governor’s Office of Refugees and Immigrants.

“This is a topic that is very timely for what we’re going through,” he said.