Rules Committee appoints six to Immigrant Rights Commission, advances reappointments

The Rules Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on March 4 unanimously approved appointments to the Immigrant Rights Commission, moving six nominees forward to the full board. Supervisor Hilary Ronan made the motion to appoint Aseel Farah (Seat 4), Mario Paz (Seat 6, with a residency waiver), Celine Kennelly (Seat 7), Jose Ng (listed to Seat 8 in the motion), Sarah Sosa (Seat 10) and Lucia Obregon (Seat 11). The panel recorded unanimous aye votes by Vice Chair Shimon Walton, Supervisor Asha Safai and Chair Ronan.

The commission applicants introduced themselves in turn. Aseel Farah described his background as a Yemeni American, his community work in the Tenderloin — including youth outreach with the Tenderloin Community Benefit District and a planning role in San Francisco’s community equity division — and his founding of a relief organization, Urgent Care for Yemen. Incumbent Celine Kennelly, who said she has served on the commission since 2012 and currently serves as board chair, summarized the panel’s recent work on workforce-development hearings, language-access matters and immigrant leadership awards.

Director Jorge Rivas of the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs read written statements for candidates who were not present and expressed departmental support for the reappointments. One applicant who testified identified himself in the record as “Jose An” and described his work leading immigrant services and citywide coalitions at Chinese for Affirmative Action; public speakers from the organization endorsed his application. Because the motion and public record use slightly different name spellings for that nominee, the committee’s appointment follows the names listed on the committee motion as read into the record.

The committee opened the item for public comment; a representative of Chinese for Affirmative Action and the organization’s co-executive director, Vincent Pan, both urged support for the applicant from their community, citing language-access outreach and naturalization services. Chair Ronan and colleagues praised the applicants’ community experience and service.

The committee’s motion included a residency waiver for Mario Paz and was approved without objection. The appointed terms were listed as ending June 6, 2025. The committee advanced the appointments to the full board for final processing as part of its standard procedural review.

What happens next: the appointments will appear on the full Board of Supervisors agenda on March 12, 2024, where final confirmation and administrative processing will take place.