DC Mayor Muriel Bowser recently released the 2026 budget proposal for the District. Alarmingly, the proposal includes a provision seeking to dismantle the DC Sanctuary Values Amendment Act.
On June 2, Ayuda’s team joined the Colectivo de Familias MIgrantes, Free DC, and other immigration advocates in testifying before the DC Council to underscore how Sanctuary City provisions keep us all safe.
Full copies of Ayuda’s testimony as delivered are available below. Click to jump to testimony:
- Oral Testimony: Ariana Smith, Immigration Staff Attorney
- Oral Testimony: Sandra Benavente, Advocacy Manager
Oral Testimony as Delivered – Ariana Smith, Immigration Staff Attorney
Good morning. My name is Ariana Smith, and I am an immigration attorney at Ayuda, a local nonprofit that serves low-income immigrants. I have been in this role for nearly two years, and I am in awe of my clients each and every day – inspired by the strength, resiliency, and courage that it takes to rebuild a life after experiencing levels of trauma that many of us likely cannot fathom.
In addition to surviving and fleeing from persecution in their countries of origin, many of my clients have survived sexual assault, domestic violence, trafficking, and other crimes here in the United States. Several client stories come to mind when I think of this. I think about a client from Ethiopia, whose traffickers kept her trapped inside their home for an entire year, where they forced her to work more than twelve hours a day, verbally and physically abused her, confiscated all of her identification documents, and prohibited her from interacting in any way with the outside world. My client was only able to escape her traffickers with the help of the local police, who brought her to a shelter and helped her call the Human Trafficking Hotline. Had my client lived in fear that calling the police to report her traffickers would result in her detention and eventual deportation, to a country where she had been forced to undergo female genital mutilation and lived in fear for her life, I believe she would still be trapped in the home of her traffickers – traffickers whom, upon her release, she went on to aid the Department of Justice in investigating.
I think of a client from Venezuela, who was working as a delivery driver in D.C. when he was set on fire by two complete strangers. He sustained severe burns that required immediate hospitalization and a skin graft. Another client, also working in food delivery at the time, was shot at random by complete strangers in his head and torso while he was working. After his release from the hospital, he was confined to a wheelchair, paralyzed on the entire left side of his body. Both of these clients worked diligently with the Metropolitan Police Department to report and aid in investigating their attackers. Had my clients felt that they could not make these reports under fear of detention and deportation, the perpetrators of these senseless, horrific crimes would be living completely under the radar, free to go on to harm additional community members.
Unfortunately, these are not isolated stories. Our immigrant community members are uniquely vulnerable to crime, due to the exact matter we are discussing today – fear of making police reports at the risk of negative enforcement action. Had my clients not felt comfortable and safe in their interactions with the police, it would not have been possible for them to report these crimes, not to mention assist the police in bringing the perpetrators to justice.
Let me be clear: repealing D.C’s Sanctuary Values Act will further isolate and endanger immigrant communities. Instilling fear of police interaction within a community that is uniquely vulnerable to crime will not further public safety. To the contrary, it will give a free pass to those who commit horrific crimes against immigrant community members, knowing that the victims will not make police reports out of fear of adverse immigration action. Police are tasked with keeping their communities safe – not to carry out or aid federal immigration enforcement.
I ask that you please consider my stories and my insight when thinking through what actions will truly further public safety and community trust in the D.C. police. Thank you.
Oral Testimony Transcript – Sandra Benavente, Advocacy Manager
Good afternoon – on behalf of Ayuda, I thank Chairperson Pinto and members of the Committee for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Sandra Benavente, and I am Ayuda’s Advocacy Manager.
For more than 50 years, Ayuda has provided legal, social, and language access services to low-income immigrant communities in DC. We envision a community where all immigrants succeed and thrive in the United States. Guided by this vision, Ayuda stands in strong opposition to the repeal of the Sanctuary Values Act, as proposed in the FY26 Budget Support Act.
Given Ayuda’s longstanding commitment to advocating for immigrant victims of crime, we understand the importance of building trust between local government agencies and immigrant communities. Survivors need to feel safe when accessing the services they and their families rely on in their journey towards physical safety, healing, and economic stability. The Sanctuary Values Act was a crucial step towards ensuring that the District can become a place where all individuals, regardless of immigration status, can live without fear and access the services they need.
In her testimony, my colleague Ariana has already expressed how the proposed repeal would harm the immigrant victims of crime that she works with every day as she helps them access the immigration relief they qualify for. I want to reiterate her points and add that the repeal of sanctuary policies would precipitate not only increased fear around reporting crimes to local police, but also increased fear around using other city services, like public transportation, schools, libraries, and hospitals. The cascading effects would be devastating for families who have long called DC home.
We urge the DC Council to remove this dangerous provision in the Budget Support Act. This should NOT be the District’s response to a federal government that continues to demonize and scapegoat immigrants as they carry out one of the most unabashedly inhumane deportation campaigns in this country’s history. DC’s immigrant residents are valuable members of our communities and deserve better than this. They deserve a local government that fights for them and their right to live lives free of fear and undue harm.
In 2017, Mayor Bowser said – “We are a sanctuary city because we know that our neighborhoods are safer and stronger when no one is afraid to call on our government for help.”
She was right. According to analysis from the American Immigration Council, jurisdictions that adopt sanctuary policies are safer and more economically vibrant than those that do now. The analysis showed that in sanctuary jurisdictions: crime, poverty, reliance on public assistance, and unemployment were all lower, while labor-force participation and median household income were higher.
We are stronger because of policies that protect our immigrant neighbors and protect our autonomy to determine how we will, as a District, prioritize and allocate taxpayer funded resources. We ask the DC Council to reconfirm their commitment to keeping DC a sanctuary locality by rejecting and removing the Mayor’s proposed repeal from the FY26 budget.
To learn more about how you can help preserve DC’s Sanctuary City Values and support our immigrant neighbors this budgeting season please reach out to Advocacy Manager Sandra Benavente at [email protected]