By Kamala Kelkar<\/strong><\/p>\n April 3, 2008<\/p>\n San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, police Chief Heather Fong and other city officials have launched an $83,000 campaign to help immigrants feel safe and encourage them to use city facilities.<\/p>\n The campaign is meant to take a 1989 City of Refuge ordinance to the next level by advertising through bus stops, radio and billboards in different languages that immigrants should feel comfortable doing things like enrolling their children in school or filing a police report.<\/p>\n Fong said that although some immigrants might be scared to report crimes, police do not report illegal immigrants to the federal government unless necessary and police are required to find translators for those who speak other languages.<\/p>\n “All of us know people who are in our community who don’t speak English,” she said. “We need to be there to support them.”<\/p>\n Opponents of the campaign say it attracts illegal immigrants to the city, which encourages breaking the law.<\/p>\n Newsom said San Francisco is only one of a number of major cities in the U.S. considered a Sanctuary City and he has no problem being open about comforting immigrants.<\/p>\n “We’re just a little different,” said Newsom. “We’re just a little more honest.”<\/p>\n A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman said these situations come up frequently.<\/p>\n “We all embrace our heritage as a nation of immigrants, but we’re also a nation of laws,” said ICE spokeswoman Lori Hayley. “We understand local law enforcement has a different mandate than we do.”<\/p>\n Campaign brochures and other advertisements will be available in languages such as Cantonese and Russian through August for an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 undocumented residents of San Francisco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Kamala Kelkar April 3, 2008 San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, police Chief Heather Fong and other city officials have launched an $83,000 campaign to help immigrants feel safe and encourage them to use city…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6413,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,17],"tags":[4,629,65,628],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-illegal-immigration","tag-san-francisco","tag-sanctuary-city"],"yoast_head":"\n