please call the role. [roll call]

[roll call] >> thank you both. good evening ladies and gentlemen. i would like to welcome all of you here this evening for the special joint hearing hosted by the human rights commission. i would like to welcome our human rights of commissioners. thank you for joining us this evening, on behalf of my colleagues we are delighted to be cohosting this hearing with you. we look forward to a good, and open conversation this evening.

we have some excellent speaker testimony that we are looking forward to gathering. we very much look forward to hearing from members of the community on the issue of the border crisis, our first order of business to -- are there any announcements? >> thank you. office of civic engagement and veterans affairs. to members of the public, this is special joint meeting at the san francisco immigrant rights commandant -- commission on the human rights commission cosponsored by yee and ronan. please silence all cell phones so speakers are commissioners maybe be had. members of the public who wish to make comments should fill out a green comment card, and return the card to commission staff, spanish interpretation is available, headsets are available at the front through our staff, for members of the

public who wish to make a comment in spanish, please request a spanish interpreter on your comment card, and speakers using interpretation assistance will be allowed twice the amount of normal time to speak. this hearing is also being found by sf guv tv. individuals who do not want to be found or photographed can indicate so on their comment cards, or alert us before stepping up to the podium. the chair will make an announcement to sfgovtv not to film so the only audio voice recorded. >> commissioners should ask clarifying questions to the respective chairs. please let the commission staff know if you need assistance. depending on the number of people who wish to make public comments, the chairs may choose to limit the amount of speaking time per person. in the absence of chair christian we will refer to vice

chair sweet. >> before we begin this evening, i would like to welcome some members of our public offices here this evening. we are joined by [ name indescernible ] from senator harris' office. welcome. we are joined by adriana diaz. thank you for joining us this evening. we were expecting board president yee to be joining us this evening. i am wondering if there is any representative from his office for opening remarks? okay, saying none. we should move forward to the next item on the agenda which is welcoming remarks by the commission chairs. if president yee arrives we should give him an opportunity

to address the commission. he is out another engagement this evening. i'll behalf of myself, i would like to welcome you all to tonight's special hearing on the impact of the border crisis in immigrant communities. we look forward to the partnership of the members of the human rights commission i look forward to collaborating with you on this and many other issues. for 22 years to come in immigrant rights commission has fought for the rights and dignity of immigrants and other underserved and representative commodities. from language rights to the sanctuary ordinance, we have worked with our community partners and fellow commissions to ensure inclusive fair policies and conditions that make san francisco a safe and well mckee place for all people to try. it has not been an easy roll for immigrants. in the past two years, especially, we have seen a steady stream of anti- immigrant. demeaning and hate filled rhetoric, and attempts to diminish the many contributions of hard-working, law-abiding

immigrants and communities of color. the current administration has demeaned, threatened, and used outside language against immigrants. it has chosen to cage innocent children, and their families detain them indefinitely. it has chosen to eliminate every possible way for immigrant families it to access basic needs for shelter, food, and healthcare, and displace our most vulnerable immigrants in greater danger. nothing can be more cruel than the separation of end young children from their parents. who arrived at our border seeking refuge from untold dangers and threats. to turn our backs on them, cage them, i denied them access to basic hygiene, nutrition and safe clean conditions to then call them criminals, is beyond inhumane. at a time when immigrants continue to face rhetoric and federal policies that speak to tear them down, we in san francisco continue to celebrate

the many contributions of immigrants and build opportunities for collective success. we encourage our immigrants, and all residents to be typically engaged, to use their voices, to stand up to fear, to participate in news the pathway and assistance that they are eligible for and to exercise the right. the immigrant rights commission stands with and for our immigrant communities and with the human right commission. we collectively seek positive, inclusive solutions and pledged to continue our work with the community for safe and better san francisco for all. that is why tonight's hearing is so important. vice chair sweet? >> thank you. i learned a couple of hours ago, that our chair, susan christian will not be here this evening. i will comment that the san francisco human right commission has been around for over 50 years.

during those 50 years, we have stood for the right of san franciscans, and visitors to san francisco, our citizens and friends to coexist with dignity, and freedom from prejudice. as we look at the landscape today, and what the administration is doing, and we recognize that the issues that are under pending immigration are fundamentally human rights issues and we look at the fact that asylum is fundamentally a human rights issue. we are proud to be here, in a city where we would never turn our backs on people who are in need of help. we never do turn our backs on people who need help. we are proud that we can be part of this conversation, looking to be a collective effort to help ensure that regardless of who is making decisions in washington,

that we don't forget that our charge is to think about, and the dignity of all people who are in need of help, and to assist them and that is the fundamental mission of the human right commission, and we look forward into an informative hearing and to continuing this effort with the immigrant rights commission. >> thank you, commissioner. our next order of business, our policy updates. commissioners, earlier this year, the next agenda item will include updates on these issues. in march of 2019, the commission met with over 70 members of the travertine community about barriers they are facing to send funds to family members in yemen, who are in need of food, medicine and shelter due to the civil war that has claimed thousands of lives. the treasurer's office responded immediately, for our request into an investigation. we would hear first from their policy and communications manager, eric.

>> thank you. just to provide a quick update, my name is eric manke come on with the office of the treasurer and tax collector. a quick review, our office received a letter, from this commission, in june, notifying us of some barriers that bay area residents were experiencing, as they were trying to transfer money to family and friends in yemen. we were very moved by the stories that we read, from those hearings. we immediately started looking at what we were designated to do, look at alternatives, to see if there was any other way to actually get money transferred to those of family and friends, in yemen, who were in desperate need of it. we looked at three different areas, the first was our banking section, in the treasurer's

office. we reach out to our bank partners, and bank of america. essentially what we found there was that the only way to transfer money to yemen at this moment, is through a wire transfer. there is all kinds of, which i even learned, different ways that you can transfer money electronically. the only thing that is viable right now, is wire transfers. the second thing we learned from those interactions where that, one thing we tried to get creative and think about, would there be a way to purchase prepaid cards here, and somehow get them there. that was also -- we were also told that those were only domestically issued, and used. that was the banking issue that we looked at. second, we have an office of financial empowerment based inside the treasurer's office. so, folks in that office,

contacted several other municipalities with similar offices to see if they were experiencing this issue to see if they had come up with solutions to this issue. and, then third, the office of financial empowerment, we have some connections that are relationships we have built with international, micro lending groups. to see if they have it any presence in yemen if they would be able to provide a service. i am sorry to report that most of our efforts did not lead to any viable option for transferring money besides the ways that were shared with you all during your meetings. however, a very small thing we did discover, that might be useful, is there is a world bank website, which lifts potential options for money transfer

operators that may still operate in the u.s., and transfer money to yemen, besides the two that were primarily discussed which is western union or money gram. finally, i think what is at the crux of this that we found most noteworthy, was that -- that when we were exploring those through the different sections of our office. we discovered that yemen is on the u.s. treasury sanctions list. therefore, any attempts to send funds to the country are under scrutiny by the u.s. department of treasury office of foreign assets control. we provided a report, from the u.s. treasury from that office specific to the yemen sanctions. with that i think i will end and

answer any questions you may have. >> thank you very much, and thank you so much for your effort to assist. >> i wish i could be more helpful. >> i know. being an iranian american, and an immigrant, it is really hard, because of the economic sanctions and they are really, really difficult. sometimes the treasury has a way for humanitarian, that i know some nonprofits have been able to try, and re- seemed -- received cell phones could be sent through them. i don't know, given the latest sanctions, what is happening and how easy it is to receive those. did you look into whether the yemenis can look into nonprofits on apply for the waiver, a license is what it is called, to send humanitarians? >> we were primarily looking at

the broad alternatives, we did not dig into the u.s. treasury policies specifically. that might be another way to go, we can certainly look into it a little closely. >> that is something. i have seen some nonprofits have been able to. >> that is very interesting. >> in the interest of time, and i want to make sure we move to the issue at hand, i am going ty questions on the human right commission, i'm going to send it over to the commissioner and if you have any questions you have, that we are going to move onto. >> thank you for being here, thank you for the work you did on this. out of the city departments that we contacted, you're the response was most robust and thoroughly researched. thank you for that. we have not heard from the city attorney's office. one question i do have, is it -- did you reach out to the city attorney's office for assistance on the legal side of this issue?

>> we did not reach out to them for assistance on the legal side. in the notification we received, we had looked at our mandate, trying to find any alternative, and didn't go on the legal site without. >> on behalf of the community, thank you very much. we have passed on what you found to community leaders, and we will follow up with you directly for questions at the community may have. >> we will continue to talk to some of the other cities that we are partners with. other cities are experiencing the same issue and actively looking for alternatives, as well. i think new york city was the big city, and also chicago. >> thank you. we look forward to hearing about that. >> thank you very much. thank you commissioners for your questions. i'm going to revert back to our opening remarks. we are joined from jan lowe from board president yee's office.

good evening, thank you for joining us. >> good evening commissioners. thank you so much for taking the time to focus on this humanitarian crisis, and this issue. i apologize that president yee cannot be here today. he got pulled away to another meeting in the district. we are completely floored by what is happening, in this nation. we are glad that here in san francisco, we do not wait for answers, we come together to bring forward solutions. one thing that we would love to work with you on, on behalf of the board is to do more of these conversations, and have a joint meeting with the board of supervisors, every person with the ability to do something needs to be able to step up, and ensure that our community understands that what is happening is unconscionable. we need to do everything we can

as san franciscans, as residents here, for our brothers and sisters that are dealing with this migrant crisis. i do want to emphasize that this issue is not a latin issue alone, this is a humanitarian issue. we have to look at it from all walks of life, that are trying to cross the border and enter the united states, just to survive. that is a basic human right. migration is a human right, and that should be protected, the united states should stand for that. we have to uphold that, that's all we have. many of us would not be here, if our families didn't sacrifice anything, for us to actually be in the united states, or here in's go. that basic tenant needs to be protected and upheld. thank you very much immigrant rights commission, and human right commission, and all the staff and the experts coming together today.

the rapid response network. the folks that are here, doing the work every single day, defending basic human rights. we see you, we want to support you, and we want to make sure that those that you are serving understand that the board of supervisors stands with you. no matter how scary it is, we have to step up, and we have to be the shield for our community. that is the only thing we can do at this point. thank you so much. we look forward to future conversations and perhaps another future joint commission hearing with you. thank you. >> on behalf of both commissions i would like to thank board president yee, and the board of supervisors and mayor breed for your collective support for our immigrant communities. we know that there is the plight

of our immigrants on the difficulties our immigrants face are very much at the forefront of the mayor's mind and the mind of the board. we are correct -- very grateful for the support you have. we ask you to continue without support. we will be coming to you as we figure out new ways, new paths that we can assist our immigrant community in san francisco. thank you. moving back to item five on our agenda, the sec. of the policy updates i would like to welcome back a regular to the immigrant rights commission, sally kinoshita from the immigrant resource center who will provide an update on public charge. >> good evening, commissions of the immigrant rights commission and human right commission. my name is sally kinoshita, the deputy director of the immigrant legal resource center. we are a nonprofit organization based here in san francisco. our mission is to work with immigrants, community organizations on the legal sector to build a democratic society, the value of diversity

in the rights of all people. i've been asked to present a brief policy update on public -- charge and i will keep it brief. last month the trump administration made good on one of its promises, and continued its effort to restrict the ability of immigrants to enter the united states, get a green card, or petition family members. it did so by publishing a new public charge rule, despite a broad opposition to their proposed changes to this public charge rule. this new rule is 837 pages long, about 800 pages of it are dedicated to addressing the hundreds of thousands of comments that were submitted to the public, submitted by the public, highlighting how harmful this new rule will be to the health and well-being of immigrants and their families while creating uncertainty and consistency and chaos in the adjudication of immigration benefits and having a chilling effect in applying for immigration benefits. this new rule is set to go in

effect on october 15, 2019. however, numerous lawsuits including one filed by the city and county of san francisco have already attempted to block implementation of this new rule for unfairly targeting hard-working lawful immigrants while instilling fear and confusion in our communities. these lawsuits may stop or delay implementation of a new public charge policy beyond this implementation deadline of october 15, 2019. however if implemented the new world will mean the impact those seeking permanent resident status through family member petitions. here's a little bit of what the new rule says. it redefines who has a public charge in immigration law by expanding the list of publicly funded programs that immigration officers may consider when deciding whether someone is likely to become a public charge. under current law, the only public benefits programs all the ad our cash aid how works or

welfare, or someone who is institutionalized in long-term care paid for by the government. under the new rule they would expanded to include medicaid or medi-cal, food stamps called cal for air in california. section eight housing assistance in federally subsidized housing. all of those will be used as a green card -- [inaudible] it also looks at all cachet, just not federal cachet, but state or local cash assistance programs and barring some of them getting a green card or entering the united states. it english proficiency as a positive factor or lack of proficiency has a negative factor. it would look at medical conditions, whether or not they have private health insurance and whether or not they've ever used a fee waiver to waive a filing fee for past immigration application. it would also allow to potentially overcome a public

charge determination if they pay a bond, the minimum amount of which would be $8,100. the rule will not take effect until mid-october, until that time, all pending green card applications and those that are postmarked before that date, october 15, 2019 will be adjudicated under what our current standards for public charge. as i mentioned, under existing policy, the only programs i look at our federal cachet that people receive, and whether or not they are in long term institutionalized care. for use of publicly funded health care, nutrition housing programs are not currently considered programs that would affect someone's ability to get a green card or enter the united states. these are very drastic changes from long-standing policy that have been around for a couple of decades. although there are many changes proposed under this new rule, some remain unchanged. public charge does not impact

who is eligible for public benefits. in other words those individuals, immigrants and their family members receiving public benefits may continue to receive public benefits. many immigrants are not subject to public charge i remain unaffected by the current or the new rule, this includes a site refugees, people who already have green cards, applying for a new visa, unaccompanied minors, visa holders and applicants applying for special immigrant juvenile status, victims of human trafficking, abuse by the u.s. citizen or lawful permanent family member. those are individuals not subject to this new rule. many government funded services are safe to use and will not cause any immigration harm. those include programs like free and reduced school lunch, emergency medi-cal, disaster relief, head, et cetera. nonetheless, the damage of these proposed policies has been done in many communities we've already seen large scale

disenrollment by immigrants who fear they could be impacted. our advice to immigrant families now is if they are concerned that public charge could apply to them, they should seek the help of legal services expert who can help them do an individualized assessment of their situation. as i mentioned many people are not impacted by this at all and are not subject to it at all. for those who may be impacted they consider applying before october 15 and the new rule goes into effect. keep in mind that the new rule may not go into effect them because of pending lawsuits. we are working with the san francisco office of civic engagement to schedule a number of trainings of human service agencies staff as well as education and outreach providers and the legal services providers we hope will receive those individual questions and request for help. that is my quick update. i don't know if you have time for questions?

>> we can make time for one or two. i'm going to defer to our human right commission, is there anybody on this commission that has questions? hearing none. >> i understand we are working with providers to communicate that might be implicated by the changes. i wonder to what extent we are having conversations with city providers, where other departments that directly to enrollment or disenrollment to see if there can be preventative steps before someone does and rolls to make sure they are adequately informed around whether or not there implicated by public charge before they make a decision that may not be the right decision for them. >> we are leaning on our county partners to help us with a large scale outreach effort to let people know they may not be impacted and they should not

disenroll from safety net programs that are critical to the health and well-being of their families. we look for the support of any county agencies, schools, benefit programs et cetera that are the first line of contact for a lot of these families. to help share information. we have an educational outreach toolkit that we can share with talking points in multiple languages. >> thank you so much for your support. >> thank you very much. you are always the expert upon whom we called, so we think you for being such an educator and the support of our immigrant communities. thank you for being here. >> the next item is special testimony and impacts of the water crisis. we've had several speakers to advise us on the border crisis on the asylum-seekers in the bay area. our first speaker, is tom wong,

u.s. director at the university of california san diego. unfortunately, tom wong is ill and has advised he is not able to advise us. we will get a quick overview of tom wong's presentation. >> thank you. commissioners, this is just a quick snapshot of what professor wong is going to share with you. he has published several reports on immigrant issues. this new report is entitled seeking asylum part one, and it is based on the work of the san diego rapid response network down at the border.

it was an analysis of over 7,000 asylum seeking families totaling 17,000 people and just that one area, including 7900 children who were five years or younger, and the conclusion from their data and part one makes it clear that we are failing to treat people humanely, and conditions and detentions may be worse than anyone thought. moreover, part two of his research will be released next month indicates that this will focus on interviews with asylum-seekers who have been returned to mexico, under the migrant protection protocols. it is much worse for them. doctor wong asked us to share some quick highlights of the report's key findings. number one experiences in immigration detention, over one out of every three, or about 35%

of the asylum seeking has reported issues related to conditions in detention. among those who reported the issues were related to food, and water, including frozen or spoiled foods, not having enough to eat, not being given formula for infants for their survival, not being given water, and having to drink dirty water among those who reported issues in immigration detention, nearly 35% reported issues related to hygiene, not being able to shower, dirty bathrooms, not having a toothbrush or toothpaste to brush their teeth among other things. by the way their personal belongings are confiscated from them before they are detained. even if they brought those items they are not allowed to use it. others report 45.6% issues related to not being able to

sleep, overcrowded conditions, confinement and the temperature being too cold in the area. they were also subject to a lot of verbal abuse, including being told to go back to your. [bleep] country, you are an ape, a mu mug -- among other things such of them. reporting physical abuse, including being thrown against a wall. eighteen reported having their physical property stolen, and of course those who needed medical assistance, and were not provided. also it's interesting to note, in conclusion, of the families that were assisted by the san diego rapid response network, they came from 28 different countries of all regions in the world. you heard jen mentioned that they are not just from one area, the majority come from the

northern triangle countries of guatemala, honduras and el salvador. other countries include haiti, mexico, vietnam and india. some of the results may be surprising to you, and of course the heads of households spoke, many different languages, over 36 different primary languages for the asylum seeking heads of households, whose primary language was not english and it was not spanish. the detention centers gave 87.9%, or 88% were given the instructions about their immigration court dates by immigration officials, on their notice to appear, in spanish, even though they were not spanish speakers. of the asylum seeking heads of households primary language, is an indigenous central american language, only .6% were given instructions about their court dates in a language, other than

spanish. those are just some highlights of the report. the report may be accessed online, and we will share onli online. it is a real long length. we will share that with those offices, make that available online for you. thank you very much. >> thank you. it sends chills down everyone's spines to know that that is happening to asylum-seekers when they are in detention. do pass on our greetings to professor wong. as he moved to our invited speakers, i'm going to ask if you have any questions that we hold them to the end. we have four additional speakers, and then each commission will come to your respective chair for any questions or comments. i am going to ask that they be questions, not statements. we do not have time for statements this evening because

we have a lot of people. our next invited speaker is from carecen, and it is lariza dugan-cuadra. i am a senior immigration attorney of the central american resource center, carecen. carecen was founded 33 years a ago, from the sanctuary. it was immigrant lead, and it is an organization that serves migrants, all migrants, if we can serve them in english or spanish. i am going to just give a brief overview, from a legal services perspective of what is happeni happening, at the border, and then talk about what carecen does on the ground here. if we were to compare numbers of people arriving at the border today, as compared to ten years ago there might be a lower

number, but we are seeing more families, more children who are fleeing violent conditions especially from central america. there may be more asylum-seekers in those numbers. basically the united states government and the mexican government, at this time have effectively been working together to move the southern border to the southern border of mexico, with the goal of stopping people there, and, if people do make it to our border, there are some efforts by the administration to attempt to change laws and regulations to also stop asylum-seekers to getting access to asylum. you might have heard about some of them, because the changes have been announced, and then usually very quickly there have been litigation cases to

challenge those. i just want to review quickly three of them. one of them is the asylum third country which is the attempt to say if and asylum-seekers are processed or another country before getting to our border, that they would not be able to seek assignment here if they had not attempted to seek asylum in the country they have passed through. there are some exceptions to that, that is the general idea. that is not in effect, because it's -- that was the injunction that happened in san francisco that was said to be nationwide. it then became limited to just the borders within the ninth circuit. today was, again, made nationwide by a san francisco judge. that is the district court judge. there is another type of ban on asylum-seekers which was an attempt to say that if a person didn't come to a port of entry,

so they came somewhere other than where immigration officials were, they would not be able to ask for asylum. that is also -- the third program that has already been mentioned, they remain in mexico, or the mpp program. it has not been joint, but it was not conjoined. that means that, at this time, right now, when someone comes to the border to seek asylum, in not a very defined way, they may be not allowed to enter the united states or they may be required to stay mexico. i am saying there is not a definable difference, sometimes even members of one family may be sent to, or allowed to enter the u.s., and other members of the same family may be required to leave mexico. the numbers that i have are from

a couple of weeks ago, but over 37,000 people, and that means people who are seeking asylum, but in order to gain access to the court here in the u.s., basically there detention center is mexico, they are there. and only 1% of those people are represented so, there is a certain sense of unpredictability, of who will be required to stay mexico, and there is a level of desperation, because it is the difficulty representing someone from another country in the united states. what does this mean for people who are at the border? it means that there are camps where people are living, hardly any work, it is not safe, there is no school, there is an extended period of limbo.

it began at one port of entry, and has expanded to other in terms of the legal services that are available to people, there is an organization that provides legal services in tijuana. an example of how this works, there is very dedicated staff there, and there are volunteers that go. there is -- two trips coming up in september for volunteer attorneys through the american immigration lawyers association. what it looks like it is 12 attorneys will be there for two weeks. if you can imagine the numbers of people who are there needing services, they will be working, night and day to represent as many people as they can. i say represent and i misspoke. what i meet -- mean as is meet with people, orient them, because it is going to be a

triage situation of what you need to know and how can we help you. the legal services will never reach everyone, the legal services that are there. the policy needs to be stopped, that is what needs to happen. carecen is a plaintiff in the litigation that is ongoing, and you might wonder why we are the plaintiffs, as a legal services provider in the bay area, our work is to help families reunite and to work for people who are asylum-seekers, so our very work is affected, as well as our ability to serve, our clients normally is affected. if we do have a case, which we do have one pro bono case. very resource intensive, and terms of representing someone and meeting with them in mexico,

or san diego, and attending courts, and working on them. so, i know that there will be attorneys who become pro bono attorneys, it's just a drop in the bucket. how it affects san francisco? there may be families that are separated because of these programs. i would just give you one example that in a recent consultation, a colleague of mine was with the father, husband and father in the office in san francisco and they were awaiting a phone call from his wife. they were expecting to be advising, to be coordinating on how a bond would be paid for her release. instead she said no i'm already back in mexico. it was just a devastating moment that shows their family expectation was crushed he was

overcome. it was unexpected, and it was also he thought they would not be able to stay mexico and survive. he thought they might return to guatemala because they would be more at peace dying there than in mexico. carecen is an organization that sees consultations meaning we have an open-door policy and we see people every day. because of that level of interaction with the community we meet with people, and we also have the type of services that are social services, as well as legal services. part of the social safety net that san francisco provides for

immigrant families. when you are immigration legal services as part of the health benefit. so many people are extremely stressed about keeping their families together. so, if we can take care of their legal needs, sometimes they can do better focusing on mental health, housing, jobs and other needs that they have. the social workers that work at carecen have definitely communicated that immigration services are high on the list of what the services people come to them in need. we also believe that it is not recent immigrants that are wanting to respond to this need, but other san franciscans, and our community at large, does not want to lead people out in the we believe that working on solutions and helping to respond to this crisis can help the ci

city. i want to recognize friending for legal service providers, part of that is through the san francisco immigrant legal defense collaborative. some of you have the annual report from last year regarding from the collaborative, there has also been funding through the public defender, we greatly appreciate this level of support of the city has given to the need for legal service of. the way that that looks, how it looks is more attorneys to help people. also the sfusd collaborative means we can meet together, respond, and act. some of our partners have worked together on litigation, on impact litigation. the other aspect of this that comes about, is not just director of presentation but technical assistance from organizations like the center

for gender and refugee studies. these are excellent local experts who work so hard to help all of the legal service providers when they need extra help in understanding the nuances in the change the law that keep coming at us. carecen is greatly appreciated of the support from the city. we know legal services are crucial. there is a constant increase in the number of people who need representation. because of our open-door policy, we really do have to say no to people a lot. we also recognize that not only could we use more capacity for representation, but there are other costs associated with legal work that have increased a lot, too. because of the changes in the law, there have been administrative attacks on

asylum, brought on by the attorney general. things like changing, you know, federal law and upending it. sometimes someone like a mental health expert, or a conditions expert can really help in an extra challenging case. so, sometimes, the funding for experts, especially for low income people is not there, we cannot keep asking experts to provide pro bono assistance, even though there are a lot of wonderful generous experts. the other need that we have seen, and that our social workers have noted his mental health needs. not only in evaluations to support legal work, but in supporting families who are incredibly stressful times. where there is a really high need is for spanish language and indigenous language mental health providers. thank you for your time. >> thank you. [applause]

>> our next invited speaker is robert phillips from border community alliance. welcome. >> thank you. thank you for this opportunity. to put this in context, i lived with my wife who is also an immigrant, in novalis, arizona, for approximately ten years. i went there to direct a children's clinic and provided free medical care for children coming that was my in-depth exposure to the realities of the border as it is today. i am representing the board of directors, which is a community operation in the state of sonora, new mexico. these are colleagues of mine, we were together on the border for many years now. they felt that san francisco,

and the resources, the insights and the dedication that is present in this area, in the institutions, such as yourselves on universities, other agencies could be critical help to them in their time. i am not going to go over all of the statistics, because many of you have access to them. we know how bad it is, we understand the numbers are increasing. we know how many children and families are being forced to remain in mexico. i have a particular sense of urgency, because when i was completing my studies, at stanford, have a year study at the university of beirut. i witnessed firsthand what happens to large numbers of people who are deprived of a future. fifty-eight refugee camps that have been there since 1948 in the middle east. if you want to look at the causes of violence, and civil destruction, you need to look there. we are in danger of experiencing that same thing, on our border.

it is my dedication to the mission that was entrusted to me, to request from the people of san francisco, the agencies, and universities to consider aiding the mexican communities who are receiving the bulk of these migrants and refugees. this is not something that is going to go away. i'm well aware that the violence, the persecution that takes place, in the northern tier countries as well as all around the world right now. the last count when i had a communication from the human border initiative, this is a jesuit organization that operates in dallas on the mexican side which is allied with the university of san francisco and san mateo university, they reported that they have large numbers not only from mexico, but they had 150 cubans, they had approximately 100 venezuelans, they had haitians, africans, russians, and they had several from vietnam.

we have a desperate community, with very different needs, speaking very different languages, coming from very different situations but with one common thread. they don't have anywhere to go. they do not exist. the mexican communities that i have experienced, and i have spent a lot of time recently working with colleagues at stanford, putting together medical teams to go down to tijuana. the problem with that is, we can never helicopter enough resources in. we just do not have enough. the need is too great. the mexican border communities have shown a resilience, and ability to handle these situations, if they get the extra resources. i see it as our charge to help out, through training, answer providing the resources that are needed to mexican communities to help them scale up to meet the needs that are there. the group, the board of directors i talked about from the foundation said the organizations which we represent

the industrial manufacturers, they said we have 3,000 jobs right now. we need help in getting qualifying legal papers, the mexican commission on migration that will require that you need a certain kind of paper to work. it is attainable, but they need assistance to get there. it's not that there are not agencies, not that there aren't jobs, but they are not nearly at the levels that they need to be. if the situation is left, as it is now, what will happen, the school will be forced to create its own detention centers. you think you have seen horrors in texas, and elsewhere, he was a lot worse if that happens. these will be unsupervised areas run by people who have no stake in making sure these people are well cared for. if -- if you support this civil organization to provide care, for example, i was deeply moved

with my many experiences at the migrant center in nogales, sonora. one rows of of 35 years ago, they have not closed that migrant center one hour during the 35 years, they have cared for and salvaged the lives of over 1 million people. the potential is there. they really need our help. the recommendations that i want to share with you, in terms of what i think, is the next step, the logical next step that can turn what is voting to be a tragedy, and turn it into something that is an opportunity. an opportunity for the internationalization of this issue, an opportunity for us to join hands for the communities receiving these people. don't forget, we in san francisco, we are created by the expedition that came out of mexico. we are the inheritors of those pioneers. it is time that we may be turned

that migrant stream around and send it back down. here's a couple of suggestions. i have vetted these with all of my children, they think they are great. adoptive sister city program. a sister city program, of vanilla bland of program commies and a few people there, i'm talking about a robust thing. where san francisco allies with places like cities of novalis, tijuana, and says -- goes down and joins a joint commission, what do we have that you need, what do we need that you have? those committees, they can tell you about how to treat and care for many of the refugees who are in our area, who come from their area. we are family, even though we are not cognizant of it i we are not organized that way. a sister city program that will

encourage not only programs of medical, but tourism, cultural and educational exchange. i was a founder of what was called the border community alliance. while i move there, and after i left the children's clinic, no one was doing cross-border work. no one was taking americans into mexico and showing them the amazing work that was being do done, and the strong and vibrant communities that are along the border. when we did that we found when we touched people's hearts, not just by giving them the data, and feeding their heads, it changed their attitudes and they realized that we are in fact neighbors. when all of these people begin to volunteer and they got involved, these are people in tucson, green valley and other communities around. it's only about 1.5 hour flight between here and the arizona/mexico border. even less if you want to go down to tijuana.

it is entirely possible for us to create lifelines of information of expertise that flowed back and forth. the sister city concept is one way of doing it. also, i found the last couple of months, one of the reasons i left the job, i was a director partnership at hamilton families agency, which is seeking to find places for the growing homeless population here. the only reason i did that, we had an amazing opportunity, if we can only connect the outrage, the anger, the frustration and fear that has been generated by the policies of our current government. giving people a positive outlet. we don't need more protests, we don't need more signs. we need a way which people can put their interests, their dedication, their, their money to work. under this commission if we put

a coordinating council that brought together, first of all, all of the refugee organizations in the bay area, and get them to start talking to each other, under this commission, for example. they have a lot to say to each other. right now they operate in various silos, they get the funding from different sources, they get their staffing from different places, but they are doing the same work. if you can provide a way which they came together on a monthly basis, executive leadership. they will find partnerships, they will find ways of collaborating. they just need to start talking to each other. right now they are overwhelmed. it would be great if you staff something up and provide some incentive, give them a lunch and a place to meet and put them in a room together. i've seen this work, we did this in the border and changed the nation of the interaction between the nonprofit and ngos operating on the border. the other part of that is to have this commission, or some

similar body, provide a clearinghouse for information, if i am at google, or i am at square, or somewhere else and i am a part of an employee group that cares about the immigration, i can contact you and say we have 20 people, and here's the skills they have. who should they connect with. we would have a list of the vetted organizations on the mexican side of the border, who need this kind of information, this kind of support, that she would already establish a relationship. he would plug them in together and let them start to work. right now, the lack of a connection is meaning that so much of this energy, so much of this goodwill is going to not. it has no focus and it has no information. granted, there are a lot of difficulties in working with mexico. it took us two years to find a set of means by which we could transfer from the border community alliance are partners in mexico. we can do that. we have these pieces in place,

but the bay area has the resources that can really change this and turn this into an amazing opportunity to take these people, who are enormous creative source, willing to wo work, who have a rich heritage and a culture, enabling them to give them to the communities where they find themselves involuntarily. that is my request for you, consider an expanded roll. i bring to you the greetings of the folks that i work with and care deeply about down in mexico, they need help. they don't want you to do it for them, they don't want you to tell them what to do, but they want you to work with them and their partners. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, robert. at this point, i would like to recognize another member