CBS SF (California)
September 23, 2015
Supervisor
David Campos Tuesday called on San Francisco officials to reaffirm the
city’s status as a Sanctuary City despite a recent outcry over a fatal
shooting by an
undocumented immigrant who was released from custody instead of being
turned over to immigration authorities.
Campos
introduced a resolution at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting
urging San Francisco not to participate in Immigrations and Customs
Enforcement’s Priority Enforcement
Program, which asks law enforcement to notify immigration officials
about undocumented immigrants in custody before they are released.
Campos
argued that the program, like its unpopular predecessor known as the
Secure Communities program, damages confidence in local law enforcement
among immigrant communities,
leads to civil rights violations and runs the risk of separating
families or scapegoating immigrants.
The
resolution comes in the wake of a national controversy over San
Francisco’s Sanctuary City policies caused by the fatal shooting of
Pleasanton native Kate Steinle
in July. Steinle, who resided in San Francisco, is thought to have
been shot near Pier 14 by Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an undocumented
immigrant with prior felony convictions and multiple prior deportations.
Steinle’s
family has filed a wrongful death claim against the city, and national
figures like Donald Trump have criticized San Francisco authorities for
having released
Lopez-Sanchez from custody without notifying immigration officials
after his drug-related criminal charges were dismissed.
San
Francisco has had a Sanctuary City law on the books since 1989 and as
recently as 2013 the city passed a Due Process for All ordinance
prohibiting law enforcement
from detaining individuals on the basis of an immigration detainer
after the individual becomes eligible for release from custody.
It
is this latter law that Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi has cited as
justification for his department’s decision to release Lopez-Sanchez,
although Mayor Ed Lee has said the
ordinance does not prohibit communication with immigration officials on
a case-by-case basis.
Despite
the controversy, Campos noted that the governing board of the
Democratic County Central Committee passed a similar resolution just
last week opposing cooperation
with the Priority Enforcement Program, and urged the board to follow
suit.
Campos
also introduced a resolution calling on city law enforcement agencies
to develop policies for checking to see whether warrants have expired or
if prosecution is
likely to go forward before seeking to have people transferred into
city custody.
Campos
added that he plans to introduce an ordinance next week requiring all
law enforcement personnel to keep guns securely locked when they are
off-duty. The gun Steinle
was shot with had been reported stolen by an off-duty federal agent who
had left it in a backpack in a car.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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