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Q&A
Resources for cultural institutions to protect staff and audiences from ICE threats
3:02:02
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Council Member Rivera raises concerns about threats to cultural institutions from federal government actions and ICE, potentially affecting immigrant artists and audience attendance. MOIA officials respond with information on their efforts to address these concerns.
- MOIA has been conducting trainings for city staff, agencies, and nonprofit partners on sanctuary policies and laws.
- Commissioner Castro emphasizes that sanctuary laws and policies have not changed, despite ongoing debates.
- Deputy Commissioner Lucero commits to following up with the Department of Cultural Affairs regarding specific resources for cultural institutions.
Carlina Rivera
3:02:02
I've heard from many cultural institutions who are worried about the threats from the federal government weaponizing ICE and attempts to discredit sanctuary city laws.
3:02:12
They have raised concerns over working with immigrant artists and even having cultural events as as that being a place where that threat could actually show up in real time, as well as declining audiences as people are afraid of being targeted at a cultural event.
3:02:30
Does Moya have any training or resources specific to cultural institutions for both protecting their staff and their audiences?
Manuel Castro
3:02:39
Thank you, council member.
3:02:41
This is of course a concern for us which is why throughout the hearing today, I wanted to make sure that we are playing the role to clarify, you know, the difference between any debate that's happening on sanctuary laws and policies and what has actually happened, is our laws have not changed.
3:03:00
We continue to follow our sanctuary laws and policies.
3:03:04
And part of what we've done in the last couple of months is to train both our city staff, our various agencies, including our culture affairs office, honor sanctuary policies and laws, as well as our contracted nonprofit partners.
3:03:24
So some of those have been we'll have to confirm, but have been cultural institutions.
3:03:30
And as we continue to roll out these trainings, we want to get all this information out to people and leaders in the community so that they understand what has and has not happened.
3:03:41
But I'll hand it over to deputy commissioner Lucero to talk more about our work with that in that area.
3:03:49
But it is something that is of concern and I've heard it from from cultural institutions myself.
Lorena Lucero
3:03:54
And thank you for raising the issue because I think that we always think about it not in a space of celebration when we and a place of just admiring the arts.
3:04:06
We we will also follow-up with commissioner Cumbaugh here because as the commissioner mentioned, Moya has trained our contracted partners that sometimes have overlap.
3:04:16
But I will make sure to follow-up with her team in regards to this to this issue.
Carlina Rivera
3:04:20
Thank you.
3:04:21
I know I know many times that we we've mentioned these safe spaces, like the hospitals, the libraries, clearly, like, we need help in all of these spaces.
3:04:30
Just cultural institutions, as you said, maybe it won't necessarily come to mind, but we're a city that certainly prides itself on celebrating and and and the pride that we have in our own ethnicities and backgrounds.
3:04:42
So thank you for that.