i'm going to open it up to public comment before we begin our discussion. >> hello alita? >> this is an awesome resolution. on behalf of the c.a.c., thank you so much for this. i love the ambition. we got families waiting on average two months for referrals now. we have a lot of work to do to get there. the need is great. i love the pathway. i love this could actually fund some collaboration with city college and help build capacity. we need it. also, when it comes to building medi-cal, i think families as much as district personnel need some training. our families through access medi-cal services, there's concern about double dipping. can a family privately access their services while the district is being billed for the same services? what that prevent them from using them medically if they are billed educationally? we should have robust discussion around that. i know this isn't the appropriate time to do it, i want to respond to what feels like slight about some of us who are here constantly, who are show up all the time and comment all the time. for us advisory committ

we were there when a bus of 56 asylum seekers arrived at casa alitas, a catholic charity center in tucson. men, pregnant women and children stepping off the bus with only what they could carry. this father who asked we not show his face, traveled from brazil with his wife and three young kids before crossing the border. would you have tried to do this when donald trump was president? >> definitely not. definitely. we had the chance, you know, but the same violence that's going on today was there last year. if we were to watch the news, we would not do this. >> did you come here because joe biden was elected presidency? >> basically. basically. the main thing was the violence in my country, and the second thing i think was joe biden. you know, it's like it lightened up my hope, you know what i mean? >> reporter: director pena-lopez has seen a steady uptick. >> right now i think we're going to be dealing with fixing years of policies that really inhibited people's rights to claim asylum and find a safe place to go. >> you heard some call this a crisis right now. is it a crisis? >> the crisi

. >> with me now, alita garcia, vice president of advocacy for forward.u.s.>> let's zoom out. can you give us some context? what does our audience need to know about why these young people are arriving, why they're arriving now, and how well the u.s. government is prepared to meet this need. >> thanks for having me, alicia. one thing that's important for folks to understand is that the increase in migration to the southern border of recent history began in the trump administration. and so what we're experiencing right now is a continuance of that, that began before joe biden entered into office. now, the other thing that's important to understand is who is arriving at our border. so i'm a mom, i know you're a mom, and god forbid one day i was separated from my children and they knocked on the doorstep of a stranger seeking help. i would be wanting two things from that stranger. one, that they do not harm my child, and two, that they quickly, safely find me to reunite my children with me. and that's what the biden administration is trying to do. they're acknow