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Immigrant Rights Commission

 

Immigrant Rights Commission

Minutes of Regular Meeting on February 4, 2002


The Immigrant Rights Commission (IRC) meeting was held on Monday, February 4, 2002 at San Francisco City Hall in Room 400, at 5:10 P.M.

Members Present          Diana Lau, Isabel Huie, Joaquin Gonzalez, Juan Berumen, Emi Gusukuma, Vera Haile, Phu Nguyen, Joseph Nwadibia, Richard Ow, Marlene Tran, Houston Zheng, Commissioner Berumen arrived at 6:00pm. Commissioner Tran left at 6:12pm, Commissioner Gusukuma left at 7:00 & Commissioner Nguyen left at 7:10.

Members Absent          Neyde Azevedo & Medea Benjamin

Others Present          Dang Pham, Executive Director
          Winny Loi, Commission Secretary
          William Chan, Deputy City Attorney

II. Approval of minutes:
The following amendments to the minutes were proposed:

„h The header should read: The Immigrants Commission Minutes of Regular meeting.
„h Item 2, the 2nd to the last sentence of the 1st paragraph, delete sanctions.
„h Item 1 should read: Addressing the Educational Needs of Asian & Pacific Islander students, their families & communities were discussed after items 2,3,4 & 5.
„h 4th paragraph after item 1 should read: 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 her support for her 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.
„h Correction on the spelling of Eric Mar¡¦s name.
„h Paragraph, 1st sentence of the Director¡¦s Report should read: He, along with Commissioners Ow & Gusukuma attended the Asian Prenatal Advocates reception at its new facility. The Third sentence should read: The program establishes a universal Health care insurance for low-income San Francisco children. The First two sentences of the 5th paragraph on the Directors report should read: 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.
Changes were made to correct the name Bindlestiff Studio.
Under the Agenda for Next month, the 2nd sentence to last was corrected should read: Commissioner Gonzalez moved that the Policy & Legislation Committee help draft the resolution to support the Permanent Partners Immigrant Act.
Commissioner Haile moved to approve minutes as amended and seconded by Commissioner Gonzalez. The minutes were adopted unanimously.

IV. Presentation:          Brian Bringardner from the District Attorney¡¦s office addressed the Commission on the issue of immigrant paralegal fraud. In the normal situation, to pursue criminal charges against someone, there has to be a victim who is willing to testify. In cases involving immigrant paralegal fraud, the victims are either unavailable to testify because they have been deported or they are afraid to testify. In State enacted a new law, which made it illegal for anyone to advertise as a immigrant paralegal if they have not satisfy certain requirements, such as being bonded. Hence, the DA Office can prosecute without the need for a victim to testify. Mr. Bringardner advised the Commission that the DA¡¦s Office relies heavily on the Police to investigate and suggested that the IRC work with the Police Commission to train the officers to be sensitive to complaints regarding immigration paralegal fraud.
          The Chair asked the Policy & Legislation Committee to draft a letter to the Police Commission regarding this issue.

          Gordon Mar Director of Northern California Citizenship Project (NCCP) addressed the Commission regarding State funding for Naturalization Service Program. Governor Davis is proposing to cut the funding of the program by 70% from the original funding of $6.5 million to $2 million. Mr. Mar noted that with the help of Mr. Pham, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell & other advocacy groups, the funding was restored to 4.9 million.

V. Action/Discussion:
          Item 1-Commissioner Ow suggested that the IRC hold the next meeting in Visitation Valley Community Center on 66 Raymond Avenue. Commissioner Ow moved to adopt this schedule and seconded by Commissioner Huie. The Commission adopted the motion and directed Staff to take the necessary steps to retain the facility for next month¡¦s meeting.

          Item 2- The Chair and Director Pham proposed to the Commission that they should organize an immigrant summit. The summit is to be used as a forum to help the immigrant communities and to empower them so they become fully integrated into society. Commissioner Gonzales moved to which was 2nd by Commissioner Berumen.

          Item 3-Director Pham informed the Commission that the resolution to support Bindlestiff Stuido could not be prepared in time for the Commission¡¦s consideration, due to lack of information. The Policy & Legislation Committee will consider and finalize a proposed resolution for the Commission¡¦s consideration during the March meeting.

Teresa Yanga with the Todco Development Company asked the Commission to support Todco¡¦s effort to be named by the Redevelopment Agency as the developer for the Site. Todco was the only developer that responded to the Redevelopment¡¦s request for proposal to develop the Site. In the plan includes the building of 115 affordable studio apartment unit and the provision of a permanent unit for Bindlestiff Studio, a long-standing member of the community. Because of political considerations, the Redevelopment Agency tabled the consideration of Todco¡¦s proposal in its initial meeting. The Redevelopment Agency is bringing up Todco¡¦s proposal up for consideration at its next meeting on Tuesday, February 12th.

Lorna Chui with Bindlestiff Studio point out that this is more that just a housing issue. There are many immigrants in the South of Market who are under served. The recent development occurring in the South of Market area, such as the live-work lofts has displaced many immigrant families from their low-income housing. In addition, the Bindlestiff Studio is the only place devoted for Filipino-American artist, musician, performers, and dancers in the nation. Todco¡¦s proposal would address the issue of loss of affordable housing to the immigrant communities, as well as providing immigrant artists a place to practice their arts. The community feels frustrate that the Redevelopment Agency is not hearing and addressing their concerns.

Oliver Saria is the Chairman of the SOMA Pilipinas Coalition & an artist of Bindlestiff Studio points out the importance of the Bindlestiff Studio to the Filipino-Amercian community. Bindlestiff is a bridge for recent immigrants and 2nd generation Filipinos. Bindlestiff provides a valuable resource for other groups as SOMA.

Item 4-Marta Donayre from Love Sees No Borders addressed the Commission regarding support for the Permanent Partner Immigration Act.

VI. Directors Report:
Item 1 ¡V Mr. Pham has sent out the 2nd reminder letter to the Tier 1 departments about the due date of the final plan for compliance with the Equal Access to Service Ordinance and the checklist. As of today, the Commission has received 9 final compliance plans. Mr. Pham has also met with many departments to answer questions or problems they have regarding the development of the compliance plan.
Item 2 ¡V Mr. Pham, along with Chair Lau met with Human Rights Commission to build a working relationship regarding issues relating to the immigrants.
On January 17th, Commissioner Gusukuma and Mr. Pham attended the reception of the Asian Pacific American Institute for congressional studies.
On January 19th, Mr. Pham and other advocacy groups met with Robert Oaks & Phung Pham from the Governor¡¦s office in San Francisco to request Governor Davis to reinstate funding for Naturalization & Assistance programs.

VII. Discussion/Report from the Chair:          
Chair Lau reported on her meeting with Bill Lee the City Administrator & the Human Rights Commission (HRC).

Commissioner Haile mentioned that there was a joint hearing of the HRC & Board of Supervisors¡¦ (BOS) Neighborhood Services and Recreation Committee addressing various issues concerning Arab and Muslim communities. She suggested that the Commission should be involved in these meeting since a lot of the issues addressed by these hearing touches on those affecting immigrants. The Immigrant Rights Commission needs to seek participation on the follow up task force with Supervisor Newsom¡¦s office.

Commissioner Lau reminded the Commissioners who have not submitted their bios to submit it to Ms. Loi for posting on the Commission website.

VIII. Program & Access Committee:          
Chair Lau indicated that no meeting was held last month due to a lack of quorum.

IX. Policy & Legislation Committee:          
          Commissioner Gonzalez indicated that the committee¡¦s meeting was canceled due to lack of quorum.

X. Finance & Operations Committee:          
Commissioner Ow reported that the Committee is considering April 13 and May 4 as possible date for the Commission¡¦s retreat. The committee will draft an agenda for the retreat next month.

Commissioner Lau proposed to have the IRC retreat in City Hall.

Adjournment:                    The Commission meeting was adjourned at 7:21 p.m.