May 27, 2014
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The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to reappoint a transgender Latina activist to the Immigrant Rights Commission. The body made its decision just days after President Donald Trump backed down from his earlier plans to send federal immigration agents to the city.
The issue was taken up October 28 one day after the supervisors’ Rules Committee unanimously voted to forward the nomination of Jessy Ruiz Navarro to the full board, which approved the decision in a 10-0 vote.
Ruiz Navarro was one of two people to apply to the commission, on which she is already serving, for a term ending June 6, 2026. Gay Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman said at Rules on October 27 that it’s important she continue serving at “a time trans folks and people from Latin America in particular are experiencing extreme hate and oppression in this country … from the federal government.”
Mandelman moved to forward Navarro’s nomination to the full board as a committee report Monday, with Rules Committee colleagues Supervisors Matt Dorsey, a gay man who represents District 6, and Stephen Sherrill, who represents District 2, voting yes. Dorsey was filling in for District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, who was excused.
Navarro, who has been living in San Francisco since 2017, has been serving on the commission since 2019. She is one of a handful of trans city commissioners.
“For me, remaining in this position is not only important but necessary, in particular representing the immigrant community and my trans community,” Navarro said, speaking in Spanish that was translated by an interpreter. “In the current political context, our voices, those of trans women, are often unheard or ignored. It is therefore essential we continue to fight for fair policies and representation."
Since returning to office in January, Trump has made it a point to sign executive orders attempting to delegitimize the transgender community. The Biden administration had interpreted federal civil rights statutes referring to sex as inclusive of gender identity, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock vs. Clayton County, but Trump has rejected that.
Trump has also sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents, as well as federalized National Guard troops, to several U.S. cities, including Los Angeles and Chicago. San Francisco was about to be added to that list, with border patrol agents showing up to the Alameda Coast Guard facility last week shortly before Trump called off a planned “surge” in the Bay Area.
As the Bay Area Reporter reported, Mayor Daniel Lurie stated Trump phoned him last week and called off the operation after he told Trump the city’s economy was recovering and public safety had been improved.
“We appreciate that the president understands that we are the global hub for technology, and when San Francisco is strong, our country is strong,” Lurie stated.
Trump wrote on social media that “friends of mine who live in the area” were key to the decision, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who he said spoke highly of Lurie and of the city’s efforts to turn the corner on crime. (Benioff had previously told reporters he welcomed National Guard troops to the city before backtracking amid fierce criticism from local leaders.)
Trump stated October 23, “I spoke to Mayor Lurie last night and he asked, very nicely, that I give him a chance to see if he can turn it [San Francisco] around. I told him I think he is making a mistake, because we can do it much faster, and remove the criminals that the law does not permit him to remove. I told him, ‘It’s an easier process if we do it, faster, stronger, and safer but, let’s see how you do?’ The people of San Francisco have come together on fighting crime, especially since we began to take charge of that very nasty subject.”
Even before Benioff’s comments, Trump had referenced sending National Guard troops to San Francisco on more than one occasion. The operation that was expected to begin last week did not include Guard troops, though San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told the B.A.R. city leaders thought an immigration enforcement surge was a pretext to do so later on.
Navarro, who works for the Mission Neighborhood Health Center, said her asylum claim was recently accepted.
4 trans commissioners
Navarro is one of four trans-identified commissioners on the city’s oversight bodies – the others being Monroe Lace of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, Joaquin Guerrero of the Homeless Oversight Commission, and Cecilia Chung of the Commission on the Status of Women.
In late September, Lurie took some heat for opting not to reappoint Jane Natoli, a trans woman, to the airport commission.
Navarro had a competitor for the seat in city resident Samim B. Shaikh, who is a co-chair for the Yaseen Women's Committee, an Islamic community association in Burlingame.
Shaikh said October 27 that she has a degree in international relations and did “research centering on the factors driving global migration.”
In her application seeking appointment, Shaikh said, “As an immigrant myself I believe it is important to recognize and understand the diversity in immigrant communities, the diversity within countries of origin, and the reasons for immigration as well as the immense challenges that immigrant communities face.”
Mandelman said that ultimately, “It’s not great when you have two folks who you want to see both on the body come forward, but I do feel at this particular moment, the balance comes for Jessy Ruiz Navarro.”
One person spoke during public comment at the committee meeting in favor of Navarro.
Updated, 10/28/25: This article has been updated to report that the full Board of Supervisors approved Jessy Ruiz Navarro's appointment.
