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Immigrant Rights Commission Minutes of Regular Meeting on January 7, 2002The Immigrant Rights Commission (IRC) meeting was held on Monday, January 7, 2002 at San Francisco City Hall in Room 400, at 5:21 P.M.
Members Present Diana Lau, Neyde Azevedo, Medea Benjamin, Joaquin Gonzalez, Emi Gusukuma, Vera Haile, Joseph Nwadibia, Richard Ow, Marlene Tran. Houston Zheng arrived at 6:10pm, Juan Berumen arrived at 6:45pm. Commissioner Ow left at 6:10pm & Commissioner Benjamin left at 6:40pm.
Members Absent Isabel Huie & Phu Nguyen
Others Present Dang Pham, Executive Director
Winny Loi, Commission Secretary
William Chan, Deputy City Attorney
II. Public Comment:
Leslie Bulbuk from the Love Sees No Borders & the San Francisco Chapter of the Lesbian & Gay Immigration Rights Task Force addressed the commission regarding problems faced by Lesbian and Gay Americans/permanent residents who are in a same-sex relationship with foreign nationals. Under the current federal immigration laws, US Citizens and permanent residents could only petition for an immigrant visa for foreign nationals to whom they are married. Thus, unlike citizens and permanent residents who are married to foreign nationals, Gay and Lesbian Americans and immigrants have no hope of living together in the U.S. Congress is currently considering the Permanent Partners Immigration Act (PPIA - HR 690) which would allow U.S. citizens and permanent residents to petition for an immigrant visa for their foreign national partners as if they were their spouse. Ms. Bulbuk asked for the Commission's support for the legislation and urged the City to officially support the passage of this legislation. She also would like the Mayor to hold a press conference announcing the City's support for the Act. Ms. Bulbuk also noted that currently, the City and County of San Francisco is a Refuge only for foreign nationals, yet Americans are as affected by the lack of recognition under the immigration laws as are their foreign national partners. She urge the Commission to ask the Board to amend the City's declaration as a City of Refuge to include same-sex American partners of foreign nationals.
The Chair referred this matter to the Policy and Legislation Committee for further consideration.
III. Presentation: At the Commission's invitation, Steve Baughman from Baughman & Wang spoke on the growing problem with unscrupulous immigration consultants in the Bay Area. Four years ago, his firm began to receive complaints from the immigrants that they have been defrauded by or gotten bad legal advice from immigration consultants which hurt their chances of gaining legal status in the U.S. Often, these victims are reluctant to come forth and press criminal charges or file a civil complaint against these consultants because of their status as undocumented/out-of-status aliens. As a result, this problem has and will continue to grow in the Bay area. Mr. Baughman also informed the Commission on the legal obligations of an immigration consultants. Under the Business and Professions Code, immigrant consultants must (1) post a bond in the amount of $50,000; (2) post signs at their offices advising their customers that they are not attorneys and cannot give legal advice and that they cannot charge a fee for referring customers to lawyers; (3) provide written, bilingual fee contracts that notify the customer of a 72 hour cancellation period; and (4) render only "nonlegal assistance". Failure to comply with these requirements is a misdemeanor for the first offense and felony for repeated offenses. The statue also imposes significant fines for violations.
Mr. Baughman has tried to get the District Attorney's Office interested in prosecuting these cases. However, so far, that office has not shown any interest in this issue.
He proposed to the establishment of a Task Force, like that in the Los Angeles that would ensure compliance with the law by immigration consultants practicing in the City.
The Chair assigned this matter to the Policy and Legislation Committee for further consideration.
IV.Approval of Minutes:
Commissioner Gonzalez made a motion to approve minutes for the December meeting, which was seconded by Commissioner Nwadibia. The minutes were adopted unanimously by the Commission.
V. Consideration & Discussion of Resolution:
Item 2 - Resolution to support the Airport non-citizen workers:
Item 3 - Supervisor Sandoval's resolution to support the Airport Security Act; and
Item 4 - Resolution commending the Airport Commission and the regional Director of the INS for their efforts to ensure the job security of the immigrant at the San Francisco Airport were considered together as a single items since they are related to the same issues.
Item 1 - Addressing the Educational Needs of Asian and Pacific Islander students, their families and communities was discussed after items 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Resolution to support the Airport non-citizen workers:
Malou Babilonia from the Filipino American Community Center for Culture & Ecology, rose in support of the resolution ensure that the security workers at the San Francisco International Airport would not lose their jobs due to the implement action of the Aviation and Transportation Act. Ms. Babilonia is an active member of the Filipino community and as an immigrant to show support for fellow immigrant workers. Airport workers are good workers with long track records. To lose them would be unjust and would create more problems such as massive unemployment. She urged the Commission to pass the resolution.
Guillermo Ponce de Leon, a security guard at the airport, rose in support of the Resolution. He noted that most of the security screeners have been working at the airport for years & they have been doing a good job. The security screeners were only paid $6 an hour, just recently that they received raised salaries, due to the Living Wage Ordinance. He urged the Commission to pass the resolution.
Karl Kramer is with the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition. Coalition of Labor Unions, Community Organizations, Immigrant Rights Organizations, such as Northern CA Coalition for Immigrant Rights rose in support of the resolution. The living wage coalition campaigned for getting the Airport Commission to pass regulations calling for the quality standards program which brought up the wages of airport workers up to $10 an hour and provided health care benefit. This has reduced the turnover from 80% to 15%. The federal legislation threatens to wipe out an experienced workforce. What happened on 9/11 were not the screeners, but the failure of FAA. FAA regulation allowed knives with blades up to 3 inches to be brought onto planes & have not taken steps to increase the wages of screeners. Airport security is not a question of citizenship it's a question of competence.
Edwin Jocson from the West Bay Pilipino Multi-Service supports the passage of the resolution.
Jane Comandar from the Filipino Workers Association spoke in support of the resolution.
Roy Camandao spoke in support of the resolution. He pointed out that some Filipino are reluctant to naturalized because if they had petitioned for family member to emigrate to the U.S., the relative might have to wait longer for an immigrant visa to become available if the petitioner was naturalized, as compared to if the petitioner remains a legal permanent resident. If you are a legal permanent resident you should be allowed to work in the airport.
The Commissioners talked about the changes on the resolution & William Chan the City Attorney helped clarify the amendments on the resolution. The commissioners agreed to delete page one line 3 to line 6 and ending with and. Delete other on page one in line 8, correct the spelling of McVeigh, on page 3 delete the word "and"; delete the last whereas and leaving the words "now, therefore, be it"; & deleting the 1st resolved; deleting "further". Commissioner Gusukuma moved to adopt resolution as amended & Commissioner Benjamin 2nd the motion. The Commission unanimously adopted the resolution.
Commissioner Tran gave a report to the Commission on the Resolution addressing the educational needs of Asian Pacific Islander (APIES) that was adopted by the school board. This affected half of the students in San Francisco Unified School District. Commissioner Tran specifically noted 3 school board members, Frank Chong, Eddie Chin and Eric Mar for their work on behalf of the resolution. She also commended Chistina Wong with the Chinese of Affirmative Action who was very instrumental in pushing this resolution forward. Commissioner Tran quoted Eddie Chin, "addressing the needs of the Asian Pacific Islanders students have been long & sorely needed, not today, not yesterday, but a long time ago."
The Director's Report:
Executive Director Dang Pham informed the Commission about the progress of the Equal Access to Service Ordinance. He sent out the 2nd follow up letter on November 14th to the Tier 1 Departments with a copy of the Commission's checklist. As of the date of the meeting, he received 8 compliance plans from the Tier 1 departments. He met with a few of the departments to assist them in completing their compliance plans. He will follow up with the other Tier 1 departments who did not respond.
On November 9th & 16th Director Pham, Commissioner Lau & Commission Secretary Loi attended Raising Immigrant Voices conference. It was organized by the Northern CA Citizens Project. It was a discussions & activities that aims to strengthen the collective efforts for the political community empowerment of immigrants.
He, along with Commissioners Ow and Gusukuma attended the Asian Prenatal Advocates reception at its new facility. He also represented the Commission in the Healthy Kids Program orientation. The program establishes a universal Health care insurance for low income San Francisco children. This program was created at the initiative by Mayor Willie Brown & Department of Public Health & funded by the City & County of San Francisco. The program would provide insurance for undocumented children & children who are not eligible to other state funded programs. He also attended the CA Immigrant Welfare Coalabrative issue briefing in Oakland.
Director Pham also mentioned that his & Ms. Loi's work plan for 2002 was sent in the package for Commissioners to review.
So far only seven Commissioners have submitted their bios to Ms. Loi, we are still waiting for bios from the other commissioners. Director Pham noted to the Commissioners that if they want their individual photos to be posted on the Commission's website, they would need to provide their own personal photo.
Commissioner Lau inquired about a retreat for the Immigrant Rights Commission. Last retreat was done in City Hall. The retreat needs to be wheelchair accessible. The Chair assigned this to the Finance & Operations Committee. They need to discuss when, where, how & etc.
Program & Access Committee:
Commissioner Gusukuma, the chair of the Committee, noted that Director Pham has provided the Commission with a report of the Committee's activities.
Policy & Legislation Committee:
Commissioner Gonzalez, the Chair of the Committee, reported that they will be taking up the issue regarding the airport security workers & immigration paralegal fraud prevention.
Commissioner Gusukuma asked about the Bindelstiff Studio Resolution and Commissioner Berumen indicated that he is working with them in getting the information together. He reported that the Board of Supervisors already adopted a resolution on this issue. He proposed to have this resolution on next months meeting. He also suggested that they write a letter to support & acknowledge the Board's resolution. Commissioner Gonzalez would like to have Commissioner Berumen join the Policy & Legislation Committee since he has helped to draft a resolution. He also stated that the Commission should be more integrated in our approach to the South of Market Issue which includes redevlopment of the area & Commissioner Berumen agrees with Commissioner Gonzalez.
Finance & Operations Committee:
Commissioner Secretary Ms. Loi noted that the Committee meeting was cancelled due to a lack of quorum. The next meeting is scheduled for February 4th.
Agenda for Next month:
Commissioner Berumen proposed to put Bindelstiff studio resolution on next month's agenda. Commissioner Lau asked that a representative from the DA's office be invited to address the issue of immigration fraud. Commissioner Tran would like to have representative from Muni to address their services in the City. Commissioner Gonzalez moved that the Policy & Legislation Committee help draft the resolution to support the Permanent Partners Immigrant Act. Commissioner Gonzalez asked to have Mr. Baughman to attend the next Policy & Legislative Committee meeting so they can discuss an action plan & a resolution to help resolve the immigration fraud issue.
Next Meeting:
The next Commission meeting will a meeting held at City Hall, Hearing Room 400 February 4, 2002 at 5:00 p.m.
Adjournment: The Commission meeting was adjourned at 7:05 p.m.