The fatal shooting of a woman in San Francisco last week, allegedly by an illegal immigrant man convicted of seven felonies and previously deported to Mexico, has sparked a debate about the extent to which local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities should cooperate.
At issue is the Department of Homeland Security's practice of seeking to identify potentially deportable individuals in jails or prisons nationwide by issuing a "detainer," a request rather than an order to extend the individual's detention.
Kathryn Steinle, 32 years old, was walking with her father along Pier 14 on the evening of July 1 when she was shot in her upper torso, police said. She later died at a hospital.
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On March 26, [the suspect, Francisco] Sanchez was booked into the San Francisco County Jail on a local drug-related warrant after serving a federal prison term, the city's sheriff's office said. The next day, Mr. Sanchez appeared in San Francisco Superior Court and the drug charges were dismissed.
After San Francisco officials confirmed that Mr. Sanchez's federal prison term had been completed and that he had no active warrants, he was released from jail on April 15. He was freed despite a request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of DHS, to the city's sheriff's department that would have enabled the federal agency to take him into custody."Our officers lodged an immigration detainer asking to be notified before his release; that detainer was not honored," said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice. "As a result, 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."
A San Francisco ordinance adopted in October 2013 "deemed him ineligible for extended detention" after the local charges were dismissed, the sheriff's department said, adding that "detainers are requests and not a legal basis to hold an individual."
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee called Ms. Steinle's death "tragic and senseless," while defending the city's policies. "Let me be clear: San Francisco's Sanctuary City Policy protects residents regardless of immigration status and is not intended to protect repeat, serious and violent felons," he said.
But of course, that is exactly what those policies did, regardless of intent.
CJLF President Michael Rushford talked with Tom Sullivan on his radio show on this case. Audio is available here.
Federalism works both ways. Just as the federal government should not be interfering in essentially local matters, neither should cities be making foreign policy or immigration policy.
For better or worse, the federal government does fund local law enforcement in significant part. While a comprehensive overall of immigration and deportation policy should be undertaken, a simple and obvious step that can be taken quickly is to require cooperation from cities as a condition of the federal grants.
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