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. Ill behalf of myself, i would like to welcome you all to tonights 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 hardworking, lawabiding 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 tonights 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 dont 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 Treasurers 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 Treasurers 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 Treasurers 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 dont 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, im 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, youre the response was most robust and thoroughly researched. Thank you for that. We have not heard from the City Attorneys Office. One question i do have, is it did you reach out to the City Attorneys 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 didnt 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. Im going to revert back to our opening remarks. We are joined from jan lowe from board president yees 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, thats all we have. Many of us would not be here, if our families didnt sacrifice anything, for us to actually be in the United States, or here ins 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 mayors 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. Ive 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 wellbeing 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