About OIR

The Office of Immigrant Relations is a county program that promotes immigrant integration and belonging by addressing issues, needs, and uplifting immigrant contributions.

Mission

The mission of the County of Santa Clara is to plan for the needs of a dynamic community, provide quality services, and promote a healthy, safe, and prosperous community for all.

Vision

A Santa Clara County where the immigrant community is safe, connected and has opportunities to grow, thrive and feel a sense of belonging.

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Learn more about our office

Find out more about our news, events, resources, and more.

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Our pro-equity approaches

Change the narrative

Partner across the County to shift the dominant narrative about immigrants and refugees to promote a sense of belonging and equitable access to County services, programs, and initiatives. OIR also provides root cause analysis to explain unequal outcomes and amplifies immigrant stories to recognize invaluable contributions.

Subject matter expertise

Provide subject matter expertise by providing training, capacity building, research, and policy analysis on the latest trends and best practices in immigrant integration, social justice, and belonging.

Transformational change

Build organizational capacity to operationalize an immigrant equity lens, develop an equity index, and implement programs, such as the New American Fellowship, to assess and address institutional barriers.

Partnerships and community engagement

Take part in authentic engagement through intentional, meaningful relationship building with community members and organizations by nurturing partnerships and collaboratives (such as immigration legal services providers, Mosaic America, CAST, PEACE, Citizenship Collaborative, and Refugee and Immigrant Forum). It also works closely with County departments that directly serve immigrants.

Policy analysis

Monitor and provide guiding documents to outline federal, state, and local policies affecting immigrants. Monitor and publicize County's legislative priorities in immigration policy and advocate for policy agenda that advances immigrant equity.

Data, evaluation, and accountability

Collect and analyze immigrant data to measure equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Our staff

Teresa Castellanos
Immigrant Services Coordinator
[email protected]
Pronouns: she/her/ella

Sandy Vasquez
Management Analyst
[email protected]
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Sheila Peralta
Sr. Management Analyst
[email protected]
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Juan Coronado
Assoc. Management Analyst
Pronouns: he/him