Activists Flood SF City Hall to Protest Immigrant Support and Legal Aid Cuts

Hundreds of activists flooded San Francisco’s City Hall Monday to protest cuts to nonprofit funding in the city’s pending budget, saying the mayor is pulling back support for working-class and low-income San Franciscans at a time these communities are facing threats from the federal government.

During more than eight hours of public comment on the city’s spending plan, hundreds of housing caseworkers, immigrants’ rights advocates and nonprofit employees set to have their budgets and roles slashed to cure the city’s massive shortfall, voiced their frustrations to city supervisors.

“San Francisco was built on the backs of immigrants and working-class communities of color, and right now, we need San Francisco to put its money where its mouth is,” said Claire Lau, a campaign coordinator with the Chinese Progressive Association. “We see that in all levels of government, our social safety net is already falling apart … We need the city to strengthen our social safety net here, right at home.”

Lurie’s proposal balances a $782 million shortfall over the next two years, in part by shaving $200 million off of nonprofits’ budgets. Public safety departments and his own office maintain their funding under his plan.

The proposal also eliminates 1,400 city positions across 40 different departments. Many of these positions are vacant, but about 400 are currently staffed, and around 100 people could be laid off.

Organizers gathered Monday during the board’s Budget and Appropriations Committee meeting, some of whom have begun calling themselves the People’s Budget Coalition, suggested instead that cuts should come from the police’s $60 million overtime budget, and continued funding for a jail in San Bruno that was initially slated to be opened temporarily.

Laura Chiera, the executive director of Legal Services to the Elderly, which works with seniors to ensure they aren’t evicted, said the organization is preparing to lose all funding for its general legal services division.

She said the service is essential to protect tenants — like a recent senior whose landlord locked him out and turned off his power after he refused a request to leave.

“The only way to get that power back on for a 77-year-old with severe mobility issues — who has no light, no power, no heat — is to go to court and sue and get a court order ordering that landlord to turn that power on and to not change the keys,” Chiera said. “That was funded by the funding that’s being cut.”

The coalition is especially concerned about reduced services for immigrants, given the recent escalation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions throughout the state.

Lurie’s budget plan cuts $250,000 from the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigration Affairs during its second year, and makes deep cuts to nonprofits that serve immigrant families in need of legal support and housing.

In recent weeks, at least 20 people have been disappeared by ICE agents at court hearings and asylum case check-ins in San Francisco. In Southern California, ICE agents have arrested people at high school graduations, workplaces and gas stations.

“Immigrant families are being torn apart at schools, at workplaces, and in communities,” Lau said. “Some are afraid to go to school, some are afraid to go work and those who do go to work are afraid to speak up when their rights are being violated.”

She called on the supervisors to increase funding for the city’s Rapid Response Network, which verifies and reports ICE raids, and protect immigrant-oriented food security programs and mental health services.

Around noon, nearly two hours into the marathon comment period, coalition leaders unrolled banners over the City Hall rotunda’s second- and third-story railings that read “No Cuts!” and “New Jail steals $$ from crucial services,” referring to the ongoing funding for the San Bruno annex. Organizers lined the stairs of the room with signs urging the supervisors to “Protect Immigrants Rights.”

After about five minutes, sheriff’s officers confiscated the banners, but the long line of commenters winding through the caverns stayed put for another six hours, organizer Anya Worley-Ziegmann said.

“We appeal to the Board of Supervisors today to look at options,” said Joe Wilson, the executive director of Hospitality House, a community center that serves the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods. “Options create possibilities, possibilities create hope. Hope is what we need in this budget … and we need a board that fights for hopefulness and fights for its people every single day of the year, not just on budget day.”

The Budget and Appropriations committee will reconvene to discuss amendments to the city’s budget on Wednesday, after which it will advance to the whole board for a vote, likely on the July 1 deadline next Tuesday.