2 years to teach into doing something that seemed at the time more compelling as human rights litigation. very much with the same communities i considered myself lucky from getting to know the latin america through the process i was able to seek remedy in u.s. courts with civil actions and spanish courts through civil actions for those abuses that were committed in the civil wars and the times of oppression. so it was, i guess, you know always the story about that i will go back to immigration and i guess every single time off that i had which hasn't been a lot in the last 5 years, but it haeb coming down quite a bit i was able to do volunteer work with the immigrant community in san francisco. and very strong with that and

finding people who from different platforms from the catholic church, different nominations and with the mission district been able to work for immigration. for years being an immigrants it's i understand the language and able to catch up with american lawyers. getting involved in a more civic way, understanding the processes and understanding the services for this commission took a while. it is for the first time that i through friends and colleagues that i understand that platforms like commission and others are great places and great groups to help the community which has been my

constant desire since i started my professional career. it's also the international work allow me i believe and perhaps that is why i think that i could be a good addition to the commission in this particular time in my life. the international work allow me to go back to the country in central america, guatemala, mexico, columbia. they had a strong tie with immigration and criminality and violence unfortunately with the united states and has been allowing me to put two things together which is to understand the life of the immigrant here and lucky and close to them and understand the cost of that immigration and how important it is for us to work and i believe for the commission to have a perspective in understanding what's happening there and why that's printing -- precipitate

---ing the very important decision of allowing money for the children from central america. i happen to be talking about this, we need to understand what is costing for these kids to leave. without that i don't think we are going to be as helpful others we could be. this is my passion and work and san francisco is my city. my mom is super happy about that. this opportunity seems to be learning and learning experience for me. thank you very much. any questions? thank you very much. leeah price.

>> greetings supervisors. my name is leah chen price, a san francisco native. for the past four years 4 years i have been an immigration attorney. my practice is on civil defense and i have learned from our local immigrant population. i regularly work from immigrants from all over the world as they seek protection from abroad as they come here to san francisco for a better life. i have been organizing and fighting for immigrant rights. i have cochaired the national guild for immigration committee and we take pro bono cases and continue legal education training to ensure that they are properly trained to take all different types of immigration matters and as a committee we serve as an expertise and support net work for our members.

the committee was active for all ordinance to protect basic due process proebsz for -- protections for immigrant committee and pursuing quality representation for all the central american chirp across our borders who made it to the bay area. i regularly attend meetings accord by the children round table for legal immigrant centers for children and we've met regularly to strategize the pro bono bar and i'm a volunteer attorney for the asian pacific islander clinic. the advocacy network and legal services and the catholic legal immigration network clinic . my pro bono experience has

given me incredible exposure. i come directly from my clients and advocates where we can address these issues. my family also knows immigrant struggle. my mother's family left communist china under president kennedy 's refugee program. i know what it's like to leave everything, safety, security and home for a promise of a better tomorrow. i hold immigration community very dear. i know i have a great deal of energy and expertise to the commission and i hope and look forward to serving this great community. identified the opportunity to attend the committee meeting and should i be appointed the areas of focus and i

would encourage to work on the following. unan accompanied children from central america. i believe in effective legal representation to ensure that though child is expected to answer to immigration charges without an attorney. san francisco serves as a model inform other cities. in addition to services there are wrap around services that these children should need and we should be mindful of the incredible atrocities these children have experienced. the second is the particular issues involving victims of crimes. next month i will begin the roll of human trafficking and on the ground working with immigrants almost 40 years, victims of crimes suffer from

a double victimization. i believe our city has taken strides in progressive steps to ensure that all victims of crime feel secure to report crimes and cooperate with law enforcement and hope the irs continues to reach out and that services are readily available and done in a culturally language competent manner that is sensitive to the particular needs of victims of crime. thank you for your consideration. i'm happy to answer any questions. >>supervisor norman yee: any questions? seeing none, do you spend more time volunteering than working? >> we find the time for both. >>supervisor norman yee: thank you very much. i'm sorry i skipped over somebody.

fill asgendom? phil? are you? next up is >> i'm also an immigration attorney. one of the reasons i will continue and want to be a part of this chigs is a brief reason why i chose to be an attorney and that has to do with the exposure and experience why i benefit as a member of this city. today i'm in my community in hopes of being reappointed to the human rights commission because i believe to ensure that our city, san francisco

for all members of our community. we are at a very important and pivotal time in the life of this city. there is much growth and development that has been implemented. it's up to us in san francisco and those of us who love the city to ensure that the promise to the immigrant community remains for the goetsdz of -- growth of this city and continues to be a safe haven. the reason that i reseek this reappointment is the voice of human rights is very i mperative and the important vehicle which can be achieved. while i have been on the commission we have held in district as well as city hall that impact the immigrant community and the closure of city college on the immigrant community to the current and future loss

that will impact the immigrant community in the city as well as the state. i believe i have not completed my mission that this city has developed for our immigrants. i do everything i do because i believe in what the city can achieve both as immigration attorney and commissioner. the committee should reappoint me because i will finish the work the help of my colleagues targeting the issues that impact us as a whole, this includes the work that i'm currently doing with the commissioners hang haeng this work is is important to me.

thank you [ applause ] >>supervisor norman yee: thank you. the next two people bill hinge and elaheensani. they are submitted statements and they are reapplying. i have some cards for this item. seeb >> i'm here as an immigrant and in support of reappointment of dr.en sani. as a woman of mideastern background and educator and also very

dynamic woman who is really well-known and liked in the immigrant community. she's the perfect person to be reappointed to this job. as the former president of the iranian american chamber of commerce and having worked with her on many different occasions in the rule of the chamber presidency and individual act in the community i have watched her encourage the immigrant community in civic engagement as an important point to democracy and to get established here in the san francisco. i have seen her in many examples where she's been very influential and very helpful paving the way for immigrants from helping people when they are being evicted, from persia scholars

that came and they were detained at the san francisco airport and even though they had visas and there were many many other activity where i have witnessed her capability, her using -- okay. anyway. i strongly want to recommend her reappointment. >>supervisor norman yee: thank you very much. i'm going to call a few names. >> good afternoon. my name is carolina corrales. the catholic community is very proud to come with the presence of

almudena. she's not just an immigrant but a responsible citizen wherever she goes. columbia is now harvesting the fruits of her ability to lift up the human beings and especially those that are invisible and being present and participated actively in the social justice event. she has demonstrated enoughantly and more important than that, a respect of human rights to immigrant brothers and sisters. to us she will be the perfect position and will be the members of the rights commission. >>supervisor norman yee:

thank you. >> good afternoon. i'm lorena -- and from san francisco immigrant rights. i'm here on behalf of almudena, a former commissioner in the human rights commission. i served for about 2 years, one 1 year was a vice-chair, one thing i learned as commissioner is what makes a commission relevant and real is to have a true connection to what's happening in the streets in our community. not only with the most dis enfranchised immigrants but the community and the intellectual community. and something that i learned

from adrian when she was mentoring in that role is that we need to be, you know have a variety of folks that can do this. and people like almudena who i met about a year 1/2 ago in our committee. when i met her she was holding a baby. i thought who who is the lady in my church and i looked her up and found out she was expressing what guatemala to court for the violations. so people like that that are very special in san francisco is sometimes don't play roles in the city. so people like almudena and like -- leah has been doing great

work. >> good afternoon supervisors, my name is michael -- connors. i know what it goes to being on the board. it's a lot of work and sometimes thankless that it gets done. i'm here in support inform -- for andre romanenko, he's my husband. this is a real big thing for us on a daily basis. i have known andre for 5 years. we've addressed issues and he's been very successful in rights in the development authority and other development agencies and demonstrated acknowledge and issues that face

immigrants and skills necessary to be an effective board member. on one particular occasion he engaged in issues for all of us actually and suggested that we have interpreters. he actually helped prepare flyer in russian and spanish. and he items is an i am grant and worked with clients. and a true concern for the immigrant population for health and safety and rights. >>supervisor norman yee: okay, i'm going to call a few more names.

>> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is marianceari. i'm here m support of reappointment of dr. alal -- like her i'm also an immigrant practicing in san francisco. i have known elahe for many years and i'm a mazed by her energy and her work with immigrants. 15 years fwoo -- ago a when she and i met, we worked with members not only of our community but

community of immigrants. shhh e has been amazing and becoming a voice for our community and you probably have met and know her from the work that she has been doing for the past 8 years or so. so i don't want to take lots of your time since i know that you know her and i hope that you will reappoint her. >>supervisor norman yee: thank you very much. >> good afternoon, my name is louisen enrique. i work for san francisco and programs and i also teach ethics. i'm here to support almudena. i met her when she was working for the genocide case in guatemala

and now el salvador. she explained because that work she is meets with the people in different communities and u.s. and we are very interested in that case in el salvador. when she presents to our students, she really motivates our students to get involved in the latin american issues especially in immigration issues . and also her charisma makes her rub shoulders with people around the world, but here in san francisco she's rubbing shoulders with the immigrants. i ran into her where she's holding the hands of undocumented people that are facing deportation or facing immigration reform. her heart is in

the right place. she would be good for san francisco. thank you very much. >> ladies and gentlemen of the rules committee. my ma'am is andre. i talk in behalf of russian community in support of mr. andre romanenko. russian community that supports mr. andre romanenko is a variety of groups, russian speaking as andre himself is of russian decent. he is a young father. he has a five-month-old daughter. so such a group russian parents in san francisco bay area which he enjoys the support of most

wholeheartedly. i have been doing volunteer russian and i have observed a number of people to andre under his success rate is very convincing. he is compassionate, he is practical in the way that few lawyers would delve into. he would help consult with housing situation for low income, he would help consult with -- so we do recommend him wholeheartedly. thank you. >> good afternoon. most immigrants when they leave their

country they are never prepared and i'm still like that. i'm here on behalf of my sister haregue. i have three kids and i tell them they need to be like haregue. they have no idea what we went through going from one country to another country to immigrate to america. this is what she cares with her even though she's very young she has all the memories and stories of what we went through. even though she lived most of her life in america, she understand the language and travels to many places and still understand what people go through and she helps a lot of immigrants and that's what she does. like i said, she's always prepared for what she does and she

understand what all the immigrants have done to the country and she really feels this is really amazing. it's very graphic what people go through even though we went through it, it's always hard for someone that is herement i talk to my kids that we never had this. for a lot of people that are here it's hard to understand, i want to on behalf i my sister to tell that she is dynamic and even though she started early here, she does it and i'm here to support her. thank you. >> good afternoon. san francisco committee.

i came here for support for haregue to be immigrant rights. we are very proud of her. she came here young. she grow here in san francisco. she went to school in san francisco. she went to junior school in san francisco and high school in san francisco and university in berkeley in california and she is a lawyer now. we are proud of her. so now she's running for immigrant rights commissioner. we have here m san francisco about 50,000 immigrant communities. so we -- like haregue, she

came vibrant and hopefully she will be. so we support her into city hall in san francisco because she goes here and this is her home. hopefully -- okay. anyway, we came for support for haregue and we love her. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is andy, i'm supposed to be called. i always have something to say. i'm here to support haregue.

she has all the answers about the immigration issues, about immigration rights. i work at the hilton hotel. we have 2,000 employees and they have questions about immigration. i give them haregue's phone number and they are very happy. also one of the five leaders of the community, i work community for about more than 20 years for community. we have ethiopian, they don't know the english language and they ask about immigration issue. we send them to haregue. they are very satisfied and

happy. i'm here to support haregue. >> good afternoon. i'm here for support of haregue. i came to know her a few months after i arrived in the united states where i was looking for a lawyer to help me with my asylum case and ms. haregue distinguished herself with her high grace and her compassionate nature and such a pleasant permit. -- personality. she made me decide she was the person i wa