San Francisco candidates love immigrants, but at St. Peter’s Catholic Church on Sunday, where seven of them — six for mayor and one for sheriff — gathered to talk about immigration, one held the trump card: District 11 supervisor and candidate for mayor John Avalos.
Avalos, who arrived early to speak with community members and answered all his questions in Spanish, was the obvious favorite.
“We need representatives from San Francisco to ensure that we will be able to contribute to society without fear of the federal government,” said Avalos to loud applause.
Or, as San Francisco Organizing Project leader Veronica Ramirez said at the start of the forum, “The future of immigrants is the future of all people.”
Some 37 percent of San Franciscans are immigrants, added the Mexico native — the same percentage of mayoral candidates who congregated in the Mission District to address the immigrant community at the forum hosted by the Mission Churches Local Organizing Committee.
The mostly Latino, Spanish-speaking crowd listened as the candidates addressed issues of housing, the economy and San Francisco’s sanctuary policy.
“Housing, health care, the economy — these are issues that affect everyone in general, but the immigrant community is more affected,” said Adrian Ramirez, who attended the event. “We have less legal protection, less access to resources and a lack of opportunity.”
The candidates understood this, and many could recount his story of growing up in an immigrant family.
“I came to this country when I was three years old,” California state senator and mayoral candidate Leland Yee said. “Being an immigrant, you can imagine how horrified I am about the outrageous activities of our federal government around our immigration policies.”
“I am Iranian and this is a nation that doesn’t quite well receive Iranians,” added District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who is running for sheriff. “My wife is Venezuelan, and if we adopted a North Korean child we would be the complete axis of evil.”
Turning serious, Mirkarimi condemned the federal government’s Secure Communities Policy, which requires police to submit arrestees’ fingerprints to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“I cannot stand the idea that a mother of six would be deported for simply driving without the proper license,” said Mirkarimi, echoing the sentiments of the other candidates in attendance. “It makes no sense.”
The candidates continued a discussion on legal protection, turning their attention to due process for juveniles.
Former District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty reminded the audience that he cast the eighth vote in favor of David Campos’ due process ordinance, which attempted to prohibit the Juvenile Probation Department from reporting undocumented youths to ICE at the time of arrest.
Avalos and District 3 Supervisor David Chiu also voted in favor of the 2009 ordinance.
And all three candidates told the audience they would implement the full ordinance as mayor — something former Mayor Gavin Newsom and current Mayor Ed Lee have not done.
The audience was less responsive to mayoral candidate Tony Hall, who condemned the sanctuary city policy for not protecting the safety of San Francisco residents and instead protecting criminals trying to avoid the federal government.
“As your mayor, my first responsibility is to protect the safety of law-abiding residents in this city,” said Hall to brief, polite applause. “Your community has been exploited by this policy.”
Turning to issues of housing, the candidates promised to allocate funds to affordable housing, support an affordable housing bond, protect existing property owners against foreclosures and help residents become first-time property owners.
Avalos went further, condemning capitalism for creating an unaffordable housing market in San Francisco.
“I don’t know if I am a socialist, but I know that capitalism is not functioning well for our communities,” said Avalos in Spanish, over cheers and applause from the crowd.
Then, calling for tenant protections, Avalos told the audience that two-thirds of San Franciscans are tenants.
However, Avalos is not part of the two-thirds, Chiu reminded the crowd.
“For the 15 years I’ve lived in San Francisco, I’ve been a tenant,” Chiu said. “I’m the one tenant that’s actually here with you today. The entire time I’ve lived in San Francisco, I’ve been fighting for low-income tenants and home ownership.”
For Dufty, simply adding more housing opportunities is not enough. He called for “life campuses” in public housing that could offer education and programs.
“I want artists to live in public housing so there are ceramics and photography and things that are positive to people’s experiences, so our affordable housing stock is great for people to live in,” Dufty said.
After the forum, San Francisco Organizing Project leader Juan Carlos Esteban said he felt fortunate to be living in a city whose officials care about immigrants.
“They are all from immigrant families,” added Mission resident Alicia Gutierrez. “They all have a notion of what immigrant families go through.”
Yet Esteban worried about how San Francisco’s local government can work with the federal government to protect immigrant rights.
“I say with sadness that we are fighting against a broken system that we need to fix with comprehensive immigration reform,” Esteban said.
Though the candidates expressed their commitment to the immigrant community, some Mission residents remained skeptical.
“I liked what they said today, but I want to see what they are actually going to do for our community after the election,” Mission resident Blanca Diaz said.
This Mission resident does not support Avalos. “Protection for tenants” == taking away property rights. Stupid. Almost as stupid as public housing projects.
Time for people to admit that rent control is a fiasco. Price controls = shortages. Econ 101.
Proud to be on the other side of the fence than you!
– SF native and many time mission resident.
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