The great crack-dealer escapeThe Chronicle’s big front-page two-days-in-a-row expose on a handful of undocumented kids escaping from a group home has the mayor scrambling, the city attorney scrambling, the DA scrambling and the national media in a crazy-San-Francisco twitter.
In the end, the pressure’s going to be on to sidestep or undermine San Francisco’s sanctuary-city law, which forbids local authorities from cooperating with the feds in immigration cases.
There’s a good reason for that law: If undocumented immigrants fear the local government will turn them in to be deported, they won’t report crimes, won’t report extortion from employers, won’t seek medical care, etc. It’s also, frankly, a statement that San Francisco doesn’t support and won’t support the horrible anti-immigrant policies of the Bush Administration.
As usual when the Chron gets onto one of these crime stories, the whole thing has been blown way out of proportion. Here’s a little perspective::
When juveniles are arrested in San Francisco, they go into the juvenile justice system, and are placed in the Youth Guidance Center, better known as Juvenile Hall. When the kids in custody are here illegally, and have no parents or legal guardians in town, it’s a bit of a challenge; the sanctuary law (and common sense) say the young people shouldn’t be turned over to the feds, particularly given the horror stories these days about what happens to immigrants in custody.
The Washington Post has done a major report on this, and the tales from behind the concertina wire are horrifying.
No decent judge or prosecutor in San Francisco would want to send nonviolent offenders into that system, particularly minors.
And since they offenders aren’t citizens, they can’t be sent into traditional youth rehab centers.
So for a while, the city just put them on airplanes and sent them home to their families. That wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was better than most of the available options. The feds found out about it and cried foul.
So the city started sending nonviolent minors who lacked documentation to private rehab centers. Not perfect either, but no solution is perfect in this fucked up system. Not surprisingly, eight Hondurans, who were convicted of dealing crack, escaped recently – and that’s what really sent the Chron over the edge.
But remember: These were nonviolent offenders. Many, according to the Public Defender’s Office, are victims themselves, driven (or forced) into the drug trade. They haven’t killed anyone, or robbed anyone.
Of course, the whole thing now has Mayor Newsom ducking, the city attorney saying it wasn’t his fault, the courts pointing at the city – and ICE and the US attorney, along with the likes of Fox News, using this as an opportunity to attack the city’s sanctuary ordinance.
I send Jaxon Van Derbecken, the Chron’s chief reporter on this series, an email this morning asking what he thinks the city ought to do instead – turn the kids over to the feds? He hasn’t answered me yet. I’ll let you know when he does.
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Comments (5)
This "sanctuary city" BS is merely a way of prolonging one problem (illegal immigration) to avoid another one (not reporting crime and other copout reasons). Until real leaders step up to the plate and address this issue--meaning some will get deported/some get amnesty--the long-term problems with illegal immigration will continue to grow.
Posted by Keith | July 2, 2008 05:16 PM
I was curious when the Guardian was going to step up with a typical screed defending the indefensible. Here's a clue - the city can't pick and choose which federal laws to follow and which to flout. Federal law always trumps local or state law - and while the sanctuary ordinance may make the Guardian and its readers feel good the simple fact is that it is unenforceable and unworkable. City workers cannot be party to illegal acts like accompanying fugitives out of the country - it creates a terrible liability for the worker and for the city.
If the Guardian wants to keep urging the city to engage in defiance of federal law then perhaps it can offer to pay the fines that will inevitably follow such a policy course - maybe from that fat judgment you're all salivating over?
Posted by Shane | July 2, 2008 10:55 PM
Um, Shane, the city decided not to obey the law that says gay people can't get married -- and look how that turned out.
Posted by tim redmond | July 6, 2008 08:15 PM
San Francisco was also ahead of the curve on medicinal cannabis which is still technically against federal law but now has legions of states challenging federal power.
Federalism only works when there is a dynamic interchange between different levels of government. Otherwise, we are left with least common denominator stasis.
Most San Franciscans realize that we are all descendants of immigrants, the Ohlone Costanoans aside, and that the draconian immigration laws have historically only brought to bear when the immigrants are not caucasian like us.
-marc
Posted by marc salomon | July 8, 2008 03:06 PM
One other thought. I would not be surprised if this was engineered by Newsom's handlers and facilitated by a compliant Chronicle in an attempt to bolster Newsom's moderate/conservative bona fides by those California voters scared off by his San Francisco cooties..
Posted by marc salomon | July 8, 2008 03:37 PM