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Meeting Information



Full Commission

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Immigrant Rights Commission
Minutes of Meeting onAugust 13, 2007 at City Hall – Room 416

The meeting was called to order by Commissioner Jamal Dajani (Vice Chair) at 5:05 p.m.

I.       ROLL CALL:

Members Present:  Sonia Melara (Chair), Jamal Dajani, Jay Gonzalez, Vera Haile, Solomon Jones, Diana Lau, Sam Ng and Toye Moses.

 

Members Absent (Excused) Gilberto Alexander, Elahe Enssani, Deborah Escobedo, Felix Levy, Angus McCarthy, Samira Causevic McCoy and Phu Nguyen.

 

Staff Present:  Dang Pham, Executive Director.

 

Guests Present:  From the African Immigrant & Refugee Resource Center:

·        Adoubou Traore, Executive Director

·        Joe Sciarrillo,  Paralegal

 

II.    WELCOME THE NEW COMMISSIONER:           

 

 On behalf of the Commission and staff, Commissioner Dajani welcomed newly 

 appointed Commissioner Jay Gonzalez to the Commission. 

 

III.   PRESENTATION:

        

        The African Immigrant & Refugee Resource Center (AIRRC) provides recent

        newcomers to the United States with the tools they need to achieve an independent

        and productive life.

        

       The Center was founded in 1982 by Rev. Dr. Amos Brown.  It has provided more than 8,000 immigrants and refugees with tutoring services to improve their  language skills, emergency housing needs, adjustment counseling, referrals, job training and placement, cultural orientation and crisis intervention services.

 

       The clients came from all parts of Africa.  Many of them were refugees and immigrants from Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe.  San Francisco boasts one of the largest African-born populations in the United States.  The Center’s clients represent across section of African society and possess a wide range of education background.  All are eager to find work and independence.  Being employed will help them to increase their self esteem and self confidence.

 

       The Center is open from Monday to Friday, 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM.

 

IV.    COMMITTEE REPORT:

 

1.      Executive Committee:

 

The next meeting of the Committee will take place on Wednesday, September 5, 2007 in City Hall – Room 370.  At this meeting, the members will consider the nominations for the awards to be given at the upcoming Immigrant Rights Summit.

 

The Committee also suggested that staff should have the sign-in sheet available at every Commission meeting.  The Commission should be able to send out the information about the Commission meetings and its activities via e-mails.

 

2. Outreach Committee:

 

The Commission recommended that the next neighborhood meeting should be held in Chinatown in November 2007. 

 

The Outreach Committee will discuss this matter at their next meeting.

 

3. Program & Access Committee:

 

The Program & Access Committee approved the final version of the 2007 EAS Compliance Annual Report submitted by staff.  The Committee will submit this Report to the full Commission for their consideration at the August meeting.

 

V.     DIRECTOR'S REPORT:

        

      1.   2007 Language Access Compliance Plans:

      At their last meeting on July 25, 2007, the Program & Access Committee approved

      the final draft of the 2007 EAS Compliance Report and recommended to the full

      Commission at the August meeting for approval.

 

      2.   Language Survey:

      The Director forwarded to Tomas Lee, Director of the Office of Language Services (OLS) the

      suggestions made by the members of the Program & Access Committee regarding the draft of the

      language survey. 

 

      OLS sent out the approved version of the language survey to all Tier 1 and Tier 2 departments.  As of this

      time, 13 city departments sent back their surveys.  The Fire Department and Department of Public Health

      requested for an extension to complete the survey.

 

      The OLS will share with the Immigrant Rights Commission of the results of the language survey.

 

      3.   Day Labor Program:

 

      The month of July was a strong month for job dispatch which significantly has improved and supported

      the morale of the day laborers.  According to the report, 243 day laborers were assigned to the requested

      jobs.

 

     La Raza Centro Legal (LRCL) is exploring the possibility of obtaining a mobile clinic

     to do rounds on Cesar Chavez Street.  In addition, La Raza Centro Legal will also

     continue to document through their legal clinic the injuries that workers get while on

     the job.  This is part of an injury surveillance project that LRCL is engaging in to

    better document work hazards for day laborers.

     

      4.   Informational/Meeting:

      * CHAMP Act:

      The US House of Representatives will consider the bill HR 3162, the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act.  This Act includes important provisions to enable more immigrant children and families to access health insurance.

      The CHAMP Act is the only bill that addresses the real barriers that immigrant families face when seeking access to health coverage.  The CHAMP Act that will be considered includes the provision that gives states the option to cover legal immigrant children and pregnant women who are currently barred from or must wait five years before getting federal-non-emergency Medicaid.

      Opponents of the CHAMP Act are inaccurately portraying the children’s health care bill as an immigrant issue and launching hateful attacks against immigrant communities.

      * Improving Border Security and Immigration Within Existing Law:

      The Administration announced a new package of harsh immigration measures that it intends to implement unilaterally, without action by Congress. The new plan embraces the bumper-sticker enforcement-only philosophy of immigration reform opponents. Its adoption will harm our economy, increase discrimination, and in general, make our nation a more hostile place to live for all.

            Among its most significant measures, the new Administration plan would:

·        Ramp up militarization of the border;

·        Expand detention facilities that widespread rights violations in the current facilities will be reviewed;

·        Reduce access to court hearings to contest erroneous deportation orders;

·        Convert SSA no-match letters into an immigration enforcement tool;

·        Rename the flawed Basic Pilot employment verification program and make it mandatory for all federal contractors and vendors;

·        Endeavor to incorporate state DMV data into the Basic Pilot program;

 

 

·        Increase civil fines against employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers and expand efforts to criminally prosecute employers;

·        "Streamline" guest worker programs with no indication that the current abuses of those programs will be addressed; and

·        Mandate a study of how to deny lawful residents and U.S. citizens credit for social security contributions they made before obtaining legal status.

 

VI. IMMIGRANT RIGHTS SUMMIT:

 

      * Workshop Proposals:

      The workshop proposal will be planned around three (3) proposed tracks:

 

a.       Track 1: Draft guiding principles for a more just and humane immigration reform

b.      Track 2: Develop best practices for US sanctuary cities for fair treatment to all

c.       Track 3: Develop analysis and best practices of integrating immigrants into civic and cultural life.

 

      As of last Friday, we received seven proposals and we anticipated that at least two more proposals will be submitted soon.

      I also enclosed in the package mailed to you the copy of the list of suggested topics for the workshop at the 2007 Summit.

      * Main Speaker:

      Commissioner Jamal Dajani assisted us in inviting Harry Belafonte to be the 2007 Summit main speaker and he did accept our invitation.

      Tomas Lee will make all necessary arrangements for Mr. Belafonte to join us at the Summit as our main speaker.

      * SFGTV:

   We also made the necessary arrangement to have the SFGTV videotape the summit

   and play it back later on its channel.

 

VII.  AWARDS AT THE SUMMIT:

 

   The Commission requested that the Executive Committee consider the nomination lists

   from Commissioners and the members of the Summit Planning Committee for the

   awards.  The Commission decided to have at least three (3) and no more than five (5)

   awards to be given out at the 2007 Immigrant Rights Summit.

 

VIII.    PROTOCOL FOR CONTACTING CITY OFFICIALS:

 

The Commission decided that the Commissioner who wants to meet with the city officials regarding the activities of the Immigrant Rights Commission must make the request thru the Executive Committee.

 

IX.       PUBLIC COMMENTS:

 

       No public comments.

 

X.     ADJOURNMENT:

 

With no further discussion, Commissioner Vera Haile moved and seconded by Commissioner Toye Mosses to adjourn the meeting.  The meeting was adjourned

at 7:05 pm.