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Orange County launches new office to assist immigrants and refugees

April 27, 2023

Iryna Sobianina arrived in Orange County nine months ago with two bags of personal belongings, her 12-year-old daughter and the anxieties that come with having to build a new life in a foreign country.

When she arrived from her home in Ukraine after the whirlwind of leaving following the Russian invasion, she faced the new challenge of navigating the United States and supporting herself and her daughter. Among other things, Sobianina was worried about how her broken English would affect her ability to find a job.

Iryna Sobianina, who recently immigrated from Ukraine, speaks during the introduction of the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs in Santa Ana, CA on Wednesday, April 26, 2023. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Orange County Supervisor Doug Chaffee speaks during the introduction of the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs in Santa Ana, CA on Wednesday, April 26, 2023. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Masih Fouladi, Deputy Executive Director of CAIR-LA (Council on American-Islamic Relations) speaks during the introduction of the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs in Santa Ana, CA on Wednesday, April 26, 2023. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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“We just need a little bit of support and somebody who can show us… where to go,” Sobianina said.

That’s exactly what the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) in Orange County will be designed to do.

Proposed by District 4 Supervisor Doug Chaffee and District 1 Supervisor Andrew Do, the Orange County Board of Supervisors agreed this week to establish the new office, which will connect immigrants and refugees with housing, legal support and other necessary resettlement resources.

The office will be located at the county’s Community Service Center in Westminster.

“When refugees arrive, their most basic needs are missing,” Chaffee said during a press conference Wednesday announcing the new program. “They need food, housing, transportation, education, medical services and jobs. With more than 930,000 of our Orange County residents being foreign-born, our immigrant population is strong, growing and instrumental to our county’s success.”

He said this new office will ensure immigrants and refugees have access to basic services and resources and it will be streamlined under one roof. Collaboration between the county and community organizers will be pivotal, he said.

“We plan on hiring a director for the office with the input of numerous community-based organizations already working with our immigrant and refugee community,” Chaffee said. “We have a draft of a proposed mission statement and vision. We want them, through workshops, to work over and make certain we all agree on where we are going.”

Van Tran, chief of staff for Do, said resettlement programs and resources already exist in the county, but the office is centralizing everything to make it easier and more effective for immigrants and refugees to access.

“I stand here today a former refugee, an immigrant, serving as the chief of staff for Vice Chairman Andrew Do, who, like me, is also a former refugee from Vietnam,” Tran said. “We know what it means to flee a violent and oppressive regime. We understand what it means to live as refugees.”

More than 50 speakers voiced support for creating a centralized office when the Board of Supervisors was deciding on it Tuesday, and they shared what they hope to see, including support for all immigrants regardless of legal status and that the office be independent of other government entities.

“We’re hoping that the office will allow for better coordination and collaboration between the county, local cities and nonprofits,” Masih Fouladi, deputy executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR-LA, said. “We hope that there will be the opportunity for the county to take advantage of federal philanthropic funding to better support immigrant and refugee populations within the county.”

The office will be reporting directly to the County of Orange’s CEO office, which Fouladi said makes sense for the time being, however added, “Ultimately, we would like the office to be an independent office, just like the Social Services Agency.

“The reason for that is immigrants and refugees touch every part of the county, and putting this office in any one particular department would potentially limit its ability, its capacity, its budget, to be able to touch all of those different facets of immigrant and refugee life,” he said. “So for now, being directly under the CEO makes sense because those limitations don’t come with current placement. And then we hope that it either stays under the CEO’s office and outside of other departments, or it eventually becomes its own department when the time allows.”

The cost of the new office is unknown, however Chaffee said his office will be donating $500,000 from his discretionary funds and the county will be applying for grants to help with costs.

For Second District Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, the approval of this office is also personal.

“This is especially significant because when our family arrived back in 1965, (it was a) much different county. No services, no support, a very small immigrant population,” Sarmiento said of his immigration from Bolivia. “The county, like any other place in the country, has had some challenges with immigrants. There is still hostility out there. There is still some negativity toward immigrants.

“I hope this office will rise up and make sure we address (that),” he said, “and we make sure that we’re humane to one another, that we’re civil to one another and provide resources in a way that is befitting of who we are.”

Sobianina, who had been invited by officials to participate in Tuesday’s press conference, said she is thankful for how the local government and community organizations helped her find the resources she needed, including Uplift Charity, an organization dedicated to helping immigrants and refugees where she now works as a digital marketing specialist.

“I’m happy to be very useful,” she said, “and to know I’m making a difference for other people.”

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Orange County launches new office to assist immigrants and refugees

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