Leaders from various community, legal and faith organizations gathered to announce the launch of a new community resource designed to protect members of the community who are vulnerable against abusive practices from immigration enforcement agencies.

The San Diego Rapid Response Network, a system through which residents can report immigration enforcement activity and abuse, officially launched on Tuesday, Dec. 19 with a gathering at St Jude’s Shrine in South San Diego.

The San Diego Rapid Response Network uses a 24-hour hotline, which is available at 619-536-0823, through which anyone throughout San Diego County can report immigration-enforcement activity such as raids, arrests, checkpoints and cases of harassment, to a team of dispatchers who then verify the calls, and then proceed to track incidents or deem rumors as false alarms.

The hotline also provides help to detained individuals by helping them get in touch with volunteer immigration attorneys who are willing to provide legal representation.

Local residents, Response Network volunteers, and members of many partner organizations gathered at the launch event to learn more about the San Diego Rapid Response Network, know how they can help, and to pledge their support to those who are affected by the immigration agenda being pushed by the Trump administration.

During the event, attendees spread out to collect various materials, such as posters, flyers, and stickers, which bear the hotline number and information about the Response Network’s goal.

The local Response Network model follows a similar concept to other models found in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento. However, despite the similarities between the programs, San Diego County presents a specific set of challenges

“Cities as far as Oceanside and Escondido are included in the program, we will serve all San Diego County, but there are zones in that don’t have a lot or legal resources and still don’t have dispatchers and volunteers,” explained Linda Feldman of Jewish Family Services of San Diego, one of the program’s core partner organizations.

There are plans for volunteers to go door to door throughout various San Diego neighborhoods In the coming weeks to spread awareness of this new community resource.

In addition to having door-to-door volunteers, the Response Network will also be hosting a number of workshop events which aim to inform more local immigrants of their rights and to train more hotline dispatchers.

Marta Roman, a resident of National City and a member of the San Diego Organizing Project, a Response Network core partner organization, attended the event. She believes that the launch of this resource will leave a positive impact on our community.

“This is a great triumph because this is a project which has been in the works for so long and today we finally see the fruits of our labor. I hope many more people join this noble cause,” Roman said to La Prensa San Diego

Despite the Response Network being officially launched this week, the concept has been in the works since february of this year and has only become urgently needed given the hostile position taken by federal agencies towards immigrants.

In October of this year, Tom Homan, acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), stated that there is an intent to quadruple immigration probes in communities and at job sites throughout the United States. As reported by CNN on Oct. 17, Homan stated that probes will “significantly increase this next fiscal year.”