>> 9 adjournment. >> we're adjourned >> well, good morning, everyone and welcome members of the press i'm the executive director of the central american resource center we're happy to celebrate san francisco's response to the children's crisis that became public in 2014 and today mayor ed lee will

speak about san francisco's effort to respond and protect children mayor ed lee is a 43 go mayor of the city and county of san francisco and mayor ed lee at 63 about say born on january 8th of 2012 as a 343 mayor of the san francisco ethics commission mayor ed lee is a first asian-american mayor in san francisco please welcome mayor ed lee. >> (clapping). >> thank you alyssa for a timely introduction welcome to san francisco city hall and want to thank you you alyssa and with our work with the city and all the families i want to say over and over again, the theme of our family unification has been a strong principle of this city and certainly when it comes to

our failed immigration policies in the country we have maintained this very strong principle for those that have by future or other circumstances come into our borders i want to say thank you to the entire san francisco immigrant legal defense collaborative a number of members are here today government agencies that have also an part of collaborative - two years ago we started this conversation with the country was talking about closing hits e its borders and harshness when it comes to re9th minors with their families we did what san francisco should do we should help we should make life less complicated less harsh, less traumatized so we sat down with the collaborative

the community agencies that provide service to our immigrant population though the immigrant rights commission we sat down and had stakeholders meetings and coming out of that we re-established the strongest principle that our city can provide which is family reunification with the course of the board of supervisors and our office we submitted funding to the tune of 2. $2 million in total to assist because were informed those families who had legal representation to go to the cases and the very complicated immigration proceedings that were occurring that were not necessarily to their favor would have a better chance if they had the legal representation

we've learned many lessons from that and that collaboration has indeed worked in fact, not only have families been reunited a number of cases we'll talk about today where actual work authorization has been grabbed to families to be more than survive they can actually succeed as families and be even better off on their own which is the dream of all the families when necessary come want to be on their own feet and do things and contribute hopefully in their mind to the better society the san francisco the place of st. francis and the place they've sought ruven we continue that principle today and in fact, we were advised by the good work that the legal reflexes and the over 13 different community-based

agencies are doing many agency working with me on the daily basis on pathways to citizenship as we invite those to take advantage and be full fledged citizens to have documentation whether that is witnesses or gathering of the different requirements paying the expensive costs it takes to go through the process of citizenship and thousands of people he prasht every year and glad to see the smiling face of the families that more than made it to the border but part of our society so in that conversation we looked at the cases and know that there are hundreds of cases that are still pending in the immigration doektsd again, the backdrop is not a good one

continues to be a presidential race with a lot of bad verbiage on what immigration should be and nobody, nobody hardly mentioned the need for families rein conjunction at the heart of our discussion i hope that changes this november i'm anymore hoping i'm trying to do something about is it so here locally we act locally even though the biggest problem is with our failed immigration policies we'll continue the strong family unification and today, we're here to announce as the funds are been spent to help families succeed in our city is ready to spend oath $1.8 million in the legal defense of our families to be reunited with their kids (clapping.) this is a good investment

it is a good investment these kids nothing like that are the startups, if you will, take the analogy because when they're welcomed and reunited those families are that much stronger and it is again, i think with reflective of what our city does but more than this money i know this money will be received very welcomely and variable for the attorneys i know that spent a lot of time beyond this amount we could have because they've worked side by side to provide the support those families need but we need our neighboring county to do the same and step up this is not just a san francisco champion and so i'll be asking our neighbors that they continue like alameda have stepped up they can do more and san leandro

and the will state of california we all asked them to take into account what we're done to make sure that they can express the same values we do so we'll be talking about with them to all do even more i think that when we talk about unaccompanied minors we also understanding that they are not just within the borders of san francisco they're all over and we want to be the welcoming era and do the right thing i met last year request senator reid to talk about the 3 day in court the act in congress along with the case that is pending before the supreme court the support president obamas insistence that is the executive order would be current law of the land until we have good immigration policy to support

the unification of our kids and families and need the support we've been writing our court to make sure they hear from us i converge everyone in the bay area to do the same the stronger voices hopefully will drown out the message some politicians are saying with a fair day in court kids act to continue supporting i received a message if senator reid has a heavy battle with that act we wanted to continue strong voices from all part of country to say this is the do the right thing so with that, i want to say again congratulations to all the community-based agencies let's unit to make the families stronger thank you. (clapping.) >> thank you, mayor ed lee we wanted to acknowledge other city

departments that have stepped up to the challenge of welcoming children runoff families from extra america and mexico those departments include the office of civic engagement and the human rights commission and the department of health the dcyf san francisco unified school district, and our grand tour mayor's office of housing and community development i'd like to welcome san francisco's public schools superintendent richard carranza (clapping.) >> good morning (clapping.) it is a true honor to be here joining the mayor and all the wife partner organizations on behalf of the san francisco unified school district we are firmly linking arms with to welcome our unaccompanied youth and families to san francisco but to make sure that we are creating and part of that safety

net so they understand when they attend our schools they're safe and going to receive services we've seen a 4 hundred percent since 2011 of unaccompanied children in our public schools last friday almost 4 hundred students that fit if description we've been working hard to create wrap up services we know that when students walks to the are threshold we don't care about the immigration paperwork with this funding we'll continue to open our schools to have legal clinics and have to tell you i attended one or two of those clinics and see the engagement with our legal partners in our school with the patchers or parents and children safe and feel supported san francisco to go budget committee hold we want to congratulate the mayor for 24is visionary

leadership in casing saying what the federation may not act in san francisco we'll act and congratulations and proud to be partners. >> (clapping). >> by leftone: has a wealth of legal service providers 13 organizations with the legal collaborative in the packet you have a list of partners next hear the as far as they are concerned, of those who are impacted in protecting children and families and invite lou lou and she's going to accompany two stories of clients that directly bend benefited from the investment. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> >> good afternoon to everyone. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> >> my name is e.

>> >> (speaking foreign language.) >> >> i have 13 years in the country. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> i want to give thanks to the mayor of san francisco for. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> i want to say thank you to all the organizations including and the community that is helping us we've come here because of the harms in our country's. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> thank you for 9th all the children that the families and the moth the mothers. >> (speaking foreign language.)

>> what happened to me in my country i lost one child they killed my daughter about a month ago they also killed my nephew. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> so thank you for the help you're giving us here in san francisco (clapping.) >> (speaking foreign language.) >> hello to everyone. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> i'm 15 years old. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> i have been here for two

years. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> i want to say first of all, thank you to the mayor for giving us this how do i say this good opportunity in our situation with immigration. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> so far the help that how do i say your attorneys are able to give us children to have - to go through the immigration situation. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> finally my case was accepted my asylum was granted i can stay

with any father. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> and thank you for helping all of us children able to stay here pursue our cases and be with our families. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> thank you (clapping.) >> so obviously those are two stories that represent thousands of stories throughout the country both of our folks from endures and next we'll invite judah and another attorney representing the children and tells you a story of many of you guys remember two years ago when the crisis and the media we had a

press conference outside of city hall and a young man to speak to the community and make a appeal he came alone from guatemala and there's a lot of video footage he was a beautiful child that touched our hearts this day we want to hear had happened two years later. >> good morning. >> in late december i he was walking with any clients walter who are 14 and william 15 we received wonderful news they were grand asylum we passed city hall and walter said that's the palace i spoke what a consequence that's the palace i got married and in the sewage of 2014 as mentioned walter stood

up in front of the board of supervisors and shared his story his words moved everyone and san francisco is important to provide children with representation to stay here year and a half later walter and his brother are safe and can focus on their education and not worried about being returned to guatemala and fear prohibition walter grew up if guatemala and their aunt in hopes of providing for them luckily instead to dropout they got older 7 or 89 they were 18 the islands were taken over and before the age of 10 those young boys witnessed dead bodies in the street as young men poor and without parents they were eventual by gangs they participated in church and youth

groups and community groups their mentors and leaders helped to them to stay focused despite that walter and william you couldn't skyline the violently william was threatened by gun point and then in the summer of 2014 their aunt and grandmother got threatening phone calls they were demanding extortion and they were going to kill walter and with him, i fear they stopped going to school and church and hid and finally came to the united states in the u.s. walter and william were refwhientd their mother and because of our help they were that able to get representation 33 and now been granted asylum they're doing well as teenagers and with the another opportunity inform learn english and what

better place to do this in san francisco and want r what a better system there an the orphaned walter and william long with their mother they can pursue their education without being forced back to guatemala wouldn't have happened without the leadership from the city to make sure that walter and william get attorneys and fight for their voting rights. (clapping.) >> next we're going to hear from immigration our lead interest and share with you some of the successes of the collaborative. >> hi, good morning my name is van can the legal director for the san francisco legal collaborative i'm honored to speak on behalf of the 13 organizations that form the collaborative we're so happy to

be standoff here with the funding department and the mayor's office on mayor's office of housing and community development and the city partners especially the san francisco unified school district and department of health today, we would thank you for the opportunity to say thank you, mayor ed lee and thank you to the city and county of san francisco for your commitment to protecting children and welcoming those families to san francisco thank you also to supervisor campos, supervisor avalos and commissioner eric mar and other members of the board of supervisors your unanimous vote of support for interest bathroom, two years ago was critical as the mayor speech highlighted hidden valley high school this is exceptional in the united states for recognizing the importance of advocates in court for children and families 80 who face violence and fear and bring together the nonprofit and legal

community schools and health service providers and local government the sf l d c represents many residents and children and adults and to have a immigration benefits for 66 of them already, we're proud of having counseled outings others intents san francisco immigration court where we seek to ensure no child is without the benefit of legal assistance i especially want to thank eld sosa and walter and william for sharing their stories today their stories are hard to tell and are hard to listen to but only they're their stories we understand the violence and abuse that the families are facing and through their tares 80 stories we see the courage and resilience and the positive impact of legal representation

on their lives the statistics have conducive almost two years ago the federal government sdibsz decided to respond by painting children as young as one year old on rocket dockets first they have been 8 hundred status hearing in san francisco and so far not one 3-year-old has been able to represent themselves in immigration court and second the last two years ago without council 97 percent of cases routed in a deportation order because attorneys are critical to helping people navigate laws and characterize second to the task code in complexity when a family is represented the states their 14 times more able to properly remain in the united states and third we helped to make those

cases not on an expedited cases those are children we are talking about and the parents are suffered trauma month don't speak english or spanish and investigating those cased is sensitivity and time figured out we've learned after they arrive in the united states those children and parents need support to make a successful and health and safety immigration into our community they struggle to go to school and it take more than an attorney to support them is it takes a aide we are fortunate to have a strong city in san francisco and despite the squeaks and prides as advocates we struggle there is a growing wait list of over one hundred people and everyday we hear the cases of children outside of san francisco who are unable to find legal kunlt as the mayor

mentioned the san francisco exhibition courts covers oregon to bakersfield this is the issue is far wider than the city of san francisco with the continued funding today but the mirror we're happy to help the families and will also be able to work towards regional and national solution in that dialogue sf will be a model we look forward to that challenge on behalf of the city of san francisco thank you. (clapping.) >> so while we celebrate san francisco's values and commitment to children the central american resource center is in mid-town last summer we took our youth leadership to celebrate and their we met one of the youth who was born in the u.s. but child of a salvadorian

and he met his cousin the same age he learned the privilege he benefited by living in the united states and being able to go to school safely and protected his cousin in have the same experience had to work every morning and take care of the indispensable and his mother walked him to school at 15 years of age not uncommon to make sure we're safe to and from school two weeks ago he was murdered in a crossfire by police when they were chasing someone and the police in order to cover up not only was he murdered they said he was a gang member he know better this is on or about is not foreign not far from us very close to home for central american community that has

suffered for thirty years and emigrated in the 80s and today as a result of violence of poverty so once again, thank you san francisco and mayor ed lee and thank you, everyone in the city for standing up for protecting children's and single-family homes that's our city's values we're here to protect outline children thank you attorneys two worked countless hours they're the first ones to arrive and the last ones to leave it is difficult this work they sit there day to day linking to stories of tram and the children's story so thank you so much for coming out we have press packets and thank you

>> you're watching quick bite, the show that has san francisco. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> we're here at one of the many food centric districts of san francisco, the 18th street corridor which locals have

affectionately dubbed the castro. a cross between castro and gastronomic. the bakery, pizza, and dolores park cafe, there is no end in sight for the mouth watering food options here. adding to the culinary delights is the family of business he which includes skylight creamery, skylight and the 18 raisin. >> skylight market has been here since 1940. it's been in the family since 1964. his father and uncle bought the market and ran it through sam taking it over in 1998. at that point sam revamped the market. he installed a kitchen in the center of the market and really made it a place where chefs look forward to come. he created community through food.

so, we designed our community as having three parts we like to draw as a triangle where it's comprised of our producers that make the food, our staff, those who sell it, and our guests who come and buy and eat the food. and we really feel that we wouldn't exist if it weren't for all three of those components who really support each other. and that's kind of what we work towards every day. >> valley creamery was opened in 2006. the two pastry chefs who started it, chris hoover and walker who is sam's wife, supplied all the pastries and bakeries for the market. they found a space on the block to do that and the ice cream kind of came as an afterthought. they realized the desire for ice cream and we now have lines around the corner. so, that's been a huge success. in 2008, sam started 18 reasons, which