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Immigrant Rights Commission
Minutes of Special Meeting on December 4, 2001

The Immigrant Rights Commission (IRC) meeting was held on Tuesday, December 4, 2001 at Roosevelt Middle School Auditorium, at 5:00 P.M.

Members Present          Emi Gusukuma, Isabel Huie, Diana Lau, Phu Nguyen, Richard Ow, Vera Haile, Houston Zheng, Medea Benjamin, Joseph Nwadibia, Marlene Tran, Juan Berumen & Joaquin Gonzalez. Commissioner Zheng & Nwadibia came at 5:20 Commissioner Tran left at 6:20pm. Neyde Azevedo arrived 5:40pm & left at 6:40pm.

Members Absent          Marcos Gutierrez

Others Present          Dang Pham, Executive Director of the IRC
          Winny Loi, Commission Secretary

Introduction:          Chair Lau welcomed & introduced the newly appointed Commissioner Berumen.

Public Comment:          Nick Buick with the Russian American Community Center addressed to the Commission to open their meeting with a pledge of allegiance. He talked about opening more facilities to provide unlimited opportunities to the immigrants.

          Captain Ed Springer with the San Francisco Police Department addressed to the Commission that most immigrants are victims of hate crime & domestic violence. The Police Department does a lot of out reach to the communities. They do presentations in the community centers & pass out handouts to inform the immigrants about hate crime & domestic violence. He also informed the public of Police recruitment in the immigrant community. He stated that Police Department is always looking for bilingual officers & that they need to be 21 years or older.

          Traci Dobronravova with the Self-Help for the Elderly is currently servicing 15,000 seniors which speak mostly Chinese or a monolingual language. They provide services to help them with many issues, such as civic programs that teaches their rights & their opportunities. She came to the commission to share some concerns of the neighborhood issues such as homelessness & housing.

          Yamna Chlala and Sonia Kaleel Arab American anti-discrimination Committee addressed to the commission about the needs of the community. There has been violence directed against the Arab American community since the September 11th tragedy. Various access to services has been has not been the same after the tragedy such as public hate crimes, domestic violence, verbal & physical abuse and many more. Most of these people are afraid to testify.

          Jan Ciuaaidad and Roy Comandao with Filipino Workers Association address her concern to the commission about jobs related to the airport. She stressed the issue of being a citizen in order to work at the airport will affect the Filipino community. She also stressed that these immigrants work long hours with only minimum pay.

          Toto Matillano with Bahay Bayanan addressed to the commission also stressed about jobs related to the airport. He stressed that the bag checkers are only minimal jobs but lots of responsibility. They really would like the Immigrant Rights Commission to pass a resolution to support the non-citizen workers who work at the airport. He also talked to the commission about the concern of new youth center and a development plan on the South of Market area. He also mentioned that there should be a new facility center, an after school program, an education center & the theater. He also would like the commission to pass a resolution to support the new youth center, bilingual program and the Filipino education center.


          Mauro Tumbocon with the Westbay Filipino Multi-Service expressed concerns to support the bilingual program. He asked if the commission can pass a resolution to support the program of Filipino Educational Center.

          Lorna Chiu is a resident artist of Bindlestiff Studio, a long-standing performing arts venue located in the South of Market Area. Bindlestiff Studio is currently engaged in discussions with the San Francisco Redevelopment Commission over the development of the Plaza Hotel, located on 6th & Howard, the current location of the theater. For the past couple of months, their staff and supporters have organized a grass-roots campaign to petition their city's Redevelopment commission to proceed with the development, to no avail. They have been frustrated with the Commission's poor leadership on this issue. Specifically, the Filipino American community, which is one of the bases of Bindlestiff Studio, has been angered by the tactics of the Commission president & three other commissioners. They have squelched discussions among the other commissioners, refused to allow members of the public to speak & have derailed a fair process from moving forward. What is at stake is the development of hundreds of low-income housing units & the rebuilding of their tattered venue. More important, the Redevelopment Commission's actions over the past few months have run counter at the aspirations of a large & vocal Filipino American community. They consider Bindlestiff a precious venue. It is a place not only to entertain, but to train young artists, to educate the general public & more importantly, to provide a unique & vital cultural resource for one of the city's most undeserved immigrant communities in the heart of the South of Market neighborhood. San Francisco has long benefited from the deep cultural resources of its African American, Chicano & Latino & other Asian American populations. The rebuilding of Bindlestiff Studio is not merely a housing or economic issue; it is also an immigrant rights issue. Bindlestiff Studio has not only served the city's various immigrant communities, it is a product of what immigrant communities have to offer: the force of their collective imagination, the power to make art happen in places taken for granted or altogether forgotten & most important, the evidence of how we bear witness to their lives & creativity. She & the board members of Bindlestiff Stuido, encourage Immigrant Rights Commission to draft a resolution in support of Bindlestiff Studio's campaign for it's immediate rebuilding.

          Giullumo Poncede Leon works at the airport addressed to the commission Aviation & Transportation Security Act-Discriminatory & Anti-Immigrant.
          The recently passed Aviation & Transportation Security Act mandates that the job of bag screening should be          done by U.S. citizens only. Considering that 80% of the bag screeners are recent immigrants, the law immediately discriminates against immigrants. At the SFO Airport, 1600 people of the bag screeners are non-U.S. citizens & 800 are Filipino immigrants. These groups of workers will all lose their jobs because of the new law. This will happen in spite of the fact that they have spent, on the average, two to three years on the job & thus could be presumed to be technically proficient. The law itself is based on faulty logic. The law assumes that the security of the airports is best entrusted to U.S. citizens, but what about the U.S. citizens Timothy McVeigh, the infamous Oklahoma City bomber? What about the bag screeners at O'Hare Airport in Chicago, who allowed a Nepalese to slip by with 8 knives, one stun gun & a mace. All of those involved are U.S. citizens. Clearly, U.S. citizenship does not guarantee security. Furthermore, U.S. citizenship is not a requirement for the pilots who fly the airplanes & flight attendants & mechanics who work on them. Finally, U.S. citizenship is not a requirement for one to join the U.S. armed forces. It has been reported that 47,000 non-U.S. citizens are in the armed forces. Clearly, the Aviation & Transportation Security Act should be amended to allow non-U.S. citizens to occupy the position of bag screener. Towards this end, the Filipino Workers Association calls on the people of various nationalities & especially the Filipinos, to unite & oppose this last piece of discriminatory legislation. He asked if the Immigrant Rights Commission could draft a resolution to support the immigrants who work as a security in the airport.

          Supervisor McGoldrick addressed to the public that he co-sponsors Supervisor Sandoval's resolution to urge the San Francisco & California Congressional delegation to amend, S.1447, the Airport Security Act to allow airport security workers to retain their jobs regardless of citizenship status & urging San Francisco International Airport to apply to be one of the five airports that will remain privatized. He also stated that there is a budget reform, so he suggested the public to have greater involvement and also to present their cases to the Board in regards to supporting the Filipino Educational Center & the Bindlestiff Studio.

Approval of
Minutes:          Commissioners Haile made a motion to approve minutes for the November meeting, which was seconded by Commissioner Gonzalez. The minutes were adopted unanimously by the Commission.

Next Meeting:          The next Commission meeting will a meeting held at City Hall, Hearing Room 400 January 7, 2002 at 5:00 p.m.

Adjournment:                    The Commission meeting was adjourned at 7:15 p.m.