SF supe wants to help unaccompanied kids crossing border

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The crisis at the border is now being debated at San Francisco City Hall and thousands of children are waiting to hear their fate. Now, a supervisor wants the city, which is already a sanctuary city, to help.

This is nothing new. Kids from different parts of Central America have been crossing the border into the U.S. for years. What is new are the numbers, which are much, much higher. They are coming to escape extreme poverty, unemployment, and lack of protection from gang violence and drug traffickers. They are coming alone, looking for parents or relatives.

San Francisco is now getting on average about 100 a month. As San Francisco Supervisor David Campos put it, they will continue to come. The federal government is overwhelmed and is asking cities to help by creating shelters to house them while they wait for their deportation hearings.

Campos introduced legislation asking for more money to help house them and offer them legal services to decide whether or not they have the right to stay in this country or go back. "These kids are going to keep coming and we need to have a response, and sticking our head in the sand is not going to make the problem go away," he said.

"We hear reports from children whose poverty situation was such that they were literally not able to eat, and their siblings were not able to eat, and they felt an obligation to try to do something about that," said Abigail Trillin with Legal Services for Children.

With regard to the resolution introduced Tuesday, nothing will be decided. A vote is expected next week and the details are expected to be hammered out later. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee has sat down last week with a number of organizations and the Department of Health to see what kinds of social services the city is able to offer these kids.