Los Angeles Times
By Louis Sahagun and Emily Alpert
July 4, 2015
San
Francisco and its liberal policy toward people in the U.S. illegally
were thrust into the national political debate this weekend after the
fatal shooting of a woman
at a popular tourist destination, allegedly by a man with a criminal
record who had been deported to Mexico several times.
The
Board of Supervisors adopted a law in 2013 that limited the conditions
under which those arrested could be placed in federal immigration holds.
Since then, dozens
of cities and counties across the country have stopped complying with
immigration "detainer" requests after a federal judge ruled that an
Oregon county violated one woman's 4th Amendment rights by holding her
for immigration authorities without probable cause.
The
San Francisco law allows holds only for people with violent records.
The suspect in the shooting, Francisco Sanchez, 45, had several felonies
but no major violent
crime conviction in recent years, according to the San Francisco
Sheriff's Department.
On
March 26, Sanchez was booked into the San Francisco County Jail on a
10-year-old drug-related warrant. The following day, local charges
against Sanchez were dismissed
in San Francisco County Superior Court. Despite his undocumented
status, Sanchez was released from custody after the Sheriff's Department
confirmed that he had no active warrants and had completed a federal
prison sentence on separate charges, officials said.
San
Francisco's ordinance made Sanchez ineligible for a U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement hold because he did not have "a violent felony
conviction within the last
seven years, or a probable cause for holding issued by a magistrate or
judge on a current violent felony," said Freya Horne, an attorney for
the San Francisco Sheriff's Department. "Nothing in his background
showed anything like that."
Sanchez was freed even though ICE sought to hold him for deportation, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the federal agency.
"An
individual with a lengthy criminal history, who is now the suspect in a
tragic murder case, was released onto the street rather than being
turned over to ICE for deportation,"
Kice said. "We're not asking local cops to do our job. All we're asking
is that they notify us when a serious foreign national criminal
offender is being released to the street so we can arrange to take
custody."
The
San Francisco Sheriff's Department announced last year that it would
only honor such requests if a judge had vetted them or a warrant was
obtained.
San
Francisco County Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi said Kice misses the point.
"ICE was informed about San Francisco's position on detainers," he said,
"but did not seek a court
order for Sanchez's transfer as required under the law."
"That's all they had to do," he said. "Get a court order and we'd be happy to honor it."
Sanchez
was arrested Wednesday after police responded to reports of a shooting
on Pier 14 near the Embarcadero and Mission Street. Police found Kathryn
Steinle, 32, with
a fatal gunshot wound to her upper body. After she fell to the ground,
Steinle, who had recently moved to San Francisco, reportedly kept
saying, "Dad, help me, help me."
She was transported to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The motive for the shooting remains under investigation, but police believe it was a random attack.
An
hour later, working on tips provided by witnesses, authorities arrested
Sanchez, who has seven felony convictions and has been deported five
times, most recently in
2009, authorities said. Four of his convictions involved narcotics
charges.
In
1989, San Francisco passed the "city and county of refuge" ordinance
that barred city money from being used to enforce immigration law and
prohibited authorities from
stopping people based solely on their immigration status or country of
origin. The city has since expanded its sanctuary policies.
The
original ordinance grew out of the sanctuary movement of the 1980s,
when churches across the country provided refuge to Central Americans
fleeing civil strife in their
homelands. Since then, hundreds of cities and counties across the
country have adopted "sanctuary" laws or policies, most recently in
response to immigration raids that have torn thousands of families
apart.
Civil
rights organizations argue that ICE's detention requests are
unconstitutional under the 4th Amendment because they are not based on
any finding of probable cause.
Angela
Chan, senior staff attorney for Asian Americans Advancing Justice —
Asian Law Caucus, pointed out that many law enforcement agencies,
including the Los Angeles
Police Department, decided to reexamine their practices after a 2014
federal ruling determined that an Oregon county was liable for damages
after holding an inmate beyond her release date so she could be
transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"Nationally,
over 320 jurisdictions do not respond to ICE holds because they violate
the 4th Amendment of the Constitution," Chan said. In San Francisco,
"even if the
sheriff had a policy of responding to ICE holds, if he'd respond he
would be liable. He'd be sued."
It's not the first time San Francisco has found itself at the center of an immigration controversy.
In
2008, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom was the target of criticism over the
city's policy of shielding convicted juvenile offenders who were in the
country illegally from federal
authorities, either escorting them to their home countries at city
expense or transporting them to group homes, often outside the city.
Newsom, who was positioning himself to run for governor at the time, said the city had stopped the practice.
But
news reports that eight young drug dealers in the country illegally
from Honduras who were convicted in San Francisco walked away from
unguarded facilities in San
Bernardino County created an uproar.
The
case against Sanchez became a divisive political campaign topic Friday
after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has come under
blistering criticism
for comments about Mexican immigrants, described it as "a senseless and
totally preventable violent act committed by an illegal immigrant."
Immigrant
rights groups say the San Francisco tragedy is being exploited
politically to promote practices that have already been called into
question in federal courts.
"Unfortunately,
some will utilize this tragic, senseless death to try to impose
immigration policies, city policies that are archaic and that are more
harmful to the community
than they are good," said Jorge-Maria Cabrera, a spokesman for the
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.
Activists
pushing for stricter enforcement of immigration laws disagree. "If you
can't deport an illegal immigrant who has been deported five times and
is guilty of seven
felonies, then who exactly is deportable?" asked Joe Guzzardi, national
media director of Californians for Population Stabilization.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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