San Francisco Immigrant Rights Commission
Full Commission Meeting Minutes

1. Call to Order and Roll Call
Vice Chair Paz called the meeting to order at 5:37 pm.
Present: Vice Chair Paz, Commissioners Enssani (6:14 pm), Fujii, Gaime, Kong (5:58 pm), Radwan, Rahimi (5:53 pm), Ricarte, Wong.
Not present: Chair Kennelly (excused), Gurvits (excused), Khojasteh, Wang (excused).
Staff present: Director Pon, Administrative Programs Coordinator Alvarez, Office Manager Chan, Deputy Director Fernández Sykes, Commission Clerk Shore.

2. Public Comment
There was no public comment.

3. Action Item: Approval of previous minutes
(Information/Discussion/Action)

a. Approval of March 11, 2019 Full Commission Meeting Minutes
This item was heard out of order.
Vice Chair Paz invited Commissioners to review the minutes from March 11, 2019. Commissioner Rahimi made a motion to approve the minutes. Commissioner Enssani seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously.

4. Invited Speakers
(Information/Discussion/Action)
a. Report from U.S.-Mexico Border and Texas Family Detention Center in Dilley by WWII Internment Camp Survivors (Nancy Ukai, Crystal City Pilgrimage and Peaceful Protest Committee)

Vice Chair Paz welcomed the speakers and invited Commissioner Fujii to introduce them.

Commissioner Fujii introduced Nancy Ukai and other members of the Crystal City Pilgrimage and Peaceful Protest Committee. Sixty Japanese Americans and Japanese Latin Americans, including seven survivors of the WWII Crystal City internment camp, traveled to Texas last week. They visited the site of the Crystal City internment camp and protested the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley. Commissioner Fujii invited them to share their experiences with the Commission.

Nancy Ukai
Nancy Ukai thanked the Commission and provided a brief presentation. In 1942, Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which led to the incarceration of 110,000 Japanese Americans. Two-thirds of those sent to internment camps were U.S. citizens and one-third of them were children. Eight thousand Japanese Americans in the Bay Area were taken to Tanforan, and then to Utah.

One hour east of Crystal City is the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, which is the largest immigrant detention center in the country today. The center is managed by CoreCivic on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). On their pilgrimage, the group protested the family detention center on the steps of the Texas capitol through Taiko drumming and some 25,000 paper cranes that had been sent from across the country. They held signs with slogans such as, “Stop repeating history” and “40,000 kids then, too many kids now.”

The group also visited a bus depot in San Antonio where families had been dropped off by immigration authorities. In Austin, they met with the Mexican American Legislative Caucus and joined a press conference at a sanctuary church. Twenty members of the group met with asylum seekers in Laredo. The group contributed to the purchase of a washing machine and dryer for them, which asylum seekers said was their biggest immediate need.

Nancy Ukai invited the other speakers to share their stories.

Grace Shimizu
“When the public hears about World War II incarceration, they usually think about the 10 War Relocation Authority camps that had most of the Japanese Americans imprisoned there. What people don’t realize is that there was a whole other set of camps that were targeting immigrants.”
Grace Shimizu stated that her family was taken from Peru and brought to the United States, where the Department of Justice and the U.S. Army ran a group of camps for immigrants. Crystal City was a migrant labor camp repurposed to become the largest family detention camp, including German, Italian, and Japanese American families. Families were taken from Latin America and brought to the camp for indefinite detention and to be used in hostage exchanges with Japan.

Libia (“Libby”) Yamamoto
“My father didn’t know what he had done wrong.”
Libia (“Libby”) Yamamoto, who was born in Peru, described the night in January 1943 when police came to her home and took her father away. Several months later, her family got notice that they could join him. They were taken to New Orleans, where she said people were forced to take public showers and were sprayed with the chemical DDT, which was used to control malaria and typhus and was later banned for its health and environmental effects. Yamamoto’s family was taken to San Antonio, and then Crystal City, where her father joined them a week later. The U.S. government made two hostage exchanges before Japan refused to continue. When the war ended in 1945, the U.S. government told those interned in the camp that they could become laborers for a company in New Jersey called the Birdseye Frozen Food Company. About 250 people went to work there. Other interned families, about 900 people, went to Japan, even though many of them had never been there. The government said they were illegal aliens, and Peru refused to take them back. Yamamoto’s father was ill so her family stayed in the camp for another two years. Her aunt, who lived in Berkeley, sponsored her family so they were able to leave the camp after four years. That is when they began learning English for the first time. In Peru, they spoke Spanish; in the camp, they were forced to attend Japanese school.

Kaz Naganuma
“My mom thought we were in Japan because the people greeting us were all Japanese.”
Kaz Naganuma said his family was arrested by the FBI in Peru in 1944. His parents did not know where they were being taken. After four weeks on a cargo ship, they arrived in New Orleans. Naganuma said his mother thought they were in Japan because the people greeting them were Japanese. They were the drivers taking them to Crystal City Internment Camp. His family spent three and a half years in the camp, and was released in 1947, with the help of a pro-bono attorney. He was 20 months old when his family was arrested and five years old when they were released.

Hiroshi Shimizu
“[The South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley] is more truly a detention center, but even more than that, it’s a prison for kids and for families. Having gone through that experience myself, I felt that it was inhumane to be treating people like this, immigrants that were seeking asylum. That is why I made that trip last weekend.”
Hiroshi Shimizu said his family went to Crystal City after his parents renounced their American citizenship at the Tule Lake camp. He said the government wanted to deport them, but pro-bono attorney Wayne Collins was able to help his family. His family was interned at Crystal City six months after the war ended, and was released in 1947.

Following the testimony, Nancy Ukai and her colleagues presented the Commission with a wreath they made from paper cranes, with the messages “Never again is now” and the message “Kodomo no tame ni” (“For the sake of the children” in Japanese).

Vice Chair Paz thanked the speakers for their courage in making the pilgrimage and sharing their stories. He invited Commissioners to ask questions.

Commissioner Gaime asked why Japanese Latinos were taken from Peru.

Grace Shimizu said that the United States had an economic, political and military interest in securing Latin America, which it viewed as its backyard. The U.S. government wanted to have military bases in Latin America, to secure raw materials like oil for the war effort, and to contain German dominance of air flights in the region. Many innocent families were targeted as being dangerous or accused of being spies.

Commissioner Gaime asked how it was possible to get past everything they have endured, and become whole humans.

Grace Shimizu said that that was one of the realizations they had on their trip.

“Going on this trip,” she said, “we got more in touch with our own families’ and community’s history.… We got to see the connection with what’s going on today and the people that are suffering. And also the people that have stepped forward to help them out of a very deep humanitarian sense.

“The people that were undergoing this now,” she said, “they met people that went through a similar situation 70 years ago. They met survivors – we survived, our community survived. And not only that, we came back to remember and to learn more and to reach out to other people who are going through similar stuff today.

“Together,” she concluded, “we can stop what is going on today.”

Nancy Ukai noted that Sam Mihara, who was interned at nine years old, said the biggest impact on him was seeing signs of hatred against Japanese Americans in a nearby town.

Vice Chair Paz asked what else could be done to fight family separations. Ukai said she was happy to share their experiences with the Commission, and to get the message out that today’s immigrants are not alone. A larger group will return to Texas in November.

Commissioner Ricarte thanked the speakers. He reflected on the expression, “Know history, know self/ No history, no self,” and said he hoped more people learn about what is happening.

Ukai said that Hiroshi Shumizu suggested that they invite the Commission to join their November pilgrimage. She said they would be honored to be accompanied by Commissioners. Vice Chair Paz thanked her and said Commissioners have discussed visiting the U.S.-Mexico border. The Commission may receive invitations from other groups as well.

Commissioner Enssani said she would like to help connect the group with fundraising opportunities and asked for information on nonprofit organizations that are helping immigrants.

Grace Shimizu thanked Commissioner Enssani and urged the Commission to take concrete actions. Immigrants being dropped off at Greyhound Bus stations, who do not necessarily speak Spanish, need legal representation, food, shelter, and basic humanitarian aid. Children in detention centers need to be released and reunited with their families. She asked what local governments could do to help reunite families.

Commissioner Fujii thanked the speakers and shared that her family was also incarcerated. She said they were eventually able to talk about the experience, thanks to time, courage and community support.

Vice Chair Paz called for a short break to take a photographs with the speakers. He reconvened the meeting at 6:31 pm.

5. Ad-Hoc Committees Report Back
(Information/Discussion/Action)
a. Communications
Commissioner Ricarte stated that OCEIA staff had presented the Communications Committee with outreach materials created by Commission Clerk Shore and Communications Specialist Richardson. They have also updated the website. Community events are announced on OCEIA’s Facebook page. Commissioner Enssani asked how to access the Facebook events page without an account. Director Pon stated that it is a publicly accessible page.

b. Immigration Policy & Muslim Ban
Commissioner Rahimi stated that the Policy Committee has drafted a letter summarizing the testimony and providing three recommendations from the March 11, 2019 special hearing. Commissioner Rahimi will work with Director Pon on distribution. The Executive Committee also discussed how family separation at the border is affecting the San Francisco school system. Vice Chair Paz said he could help connect them with students who can testify.

c. Awards
Commissioner Fujii announced that the Awards Committee and OCEIA staff are planning the awards celebration for June 10, 2019. Commissioner Radwan invited Commissioners to fill out the nomination forms in their packets as soon as possible. Commissioners have a list of awards categories, criteria and past winners. Commissioner Radwan asked them to avoid nominating friends, clients, or others where there may be a potential conflict of interest.

6. Action item: Approval of Immigrant Leadership Awards date
(Information/Discussion/Action)
a. Approval of 2019 Immigrant Leadership Awards Celebration on June 10, 2019 at City Hall
Vice Chair Paz asked for a motion to approve June 10, 2019 as the date of the Immigrant Leadership Awards. Commissioner Rahimi motioned to approve the date. Commissioner Enssani seconded the motion. The date was approved unanimously.

7. Action item: Approval of IRC recommendations
(Information/Discussion/Action)
a. IRC Annual Report Recommendations
Director Pon asked Commissioners to approve a list of recommendations in their folders to be included in their annual report. The recommendations have been previously calendared, voted on and discussed by the Commission. Commissioner Wong made a motion to approve the recommendations. Commissioner Kong seconded the motion. The recommendations were approved unanimously.

8. Action item: Approval of letter of endorsement
(Information/Discussion/Action)
a. Letter of Endorsement of AB 1113 Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (Chiu)
Director Pon stated that the staff of Assemblymember David Chiu asked if the Immigrant Rights Commission would support AB 1113 Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. The bill allows the agency to coordinate grantmaking, outreach and assistance. Commissioners discussed the bill. Commissioner Ricarte motioned to approve a letter of endorsement of AB 1113 Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. Commissioner Enssani seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously.

9. Staff Reports
(Information/Discussion/Action)
a. Director’s Updates
Director Pon thanked Commissioners for filing their Statements of Economic Interest (Form 700s) on time.

Director Pon announced that the Rules Committee held the reappointment hearing this morning. The Rules Committee recommended reappointing Commissioners Enssani, Gaime, Khojasteh and Radwan, and also appointed two new applicants, Paul Monge (Seat 4) and Jessy Ruiz Navarro (Seat 1). Their recommendations must be ratified by the Full Board, then the Commissioners will be sworn in.

Director Pon stated that OCEIA has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the 2020 census, language access, and naturalization. Information can be found on OCEIA’s grants web page.

10. Old Business
There was no old business.

11. New Business
There was no new business.

12. Adjournment
Vice Chair Paz adjourned the meeting at 6:49 pm.