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Eli Kantor is a labor, employment and immigration law attorney. He has been practicing labor, employment and immigration law for more than 36 years. He has been featured in articles about labor, employment and immigration law in the L.A. Times, Business Week.com and Daily Variety. He is a regular columnist for the Daily Journal. Telephone (310)274-8216; eli@elikantorlaw.com. For more information, visit beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com and and beverlyhillsemploymentlaw.com

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Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Lawmakers Criticize Federal Officials on Release of San Francisco Shooting Suspect

AP
July 7, 2015

Lawmakers criticized federal officials Tuesday for failing to deport an immigrant with multiple felony convictions and an outstanding drug warrant who allegedly went on to murder a woman in San Francisco.

“He had a criminal warrant but was released into the general society to commit a murder. Does that make any sense to you?” Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.), who chairs the Senate’s homeland security committee, demanded to know at a hearing. “Because I’ll tell you it doesn’t make any sense to the American public.”

Philip Miller, an official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, blamed San Francisco, saying officials there didn’t honor a federal request, known as a “detainer,” to keep Francisco Sanchez in custody.

The shooting has sparked a debate about the extent to which local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities should cooperate. Read more:

Mr. Sanchez, who is from Mexico and is in the U.S. illegally, allegedly shot and killed 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle last week as she was sightseeing with her father along a popular pier in San Francisco.

“In that particular case our detainer was not honored,” Mr. Miller said.

Also Tuesday, a law-enforcement official briefed on the matter said the gun used in the seemingly random slaying belonged to a federal agent.

The official, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity, said a police check of the weapon’s serial number shows it belonged to a federal agent. The official declined to elaborate further.

Mr. Sanchez pleaded not guilty Tuesday to first-degree murder. Mr. Sanchez told two television stations he found the gun wrapped in a shirt on the pier.

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi has defended his office’s decision regarding the federal detainer request, saying ICE should have issued an arrest warrant. Mr. Miller declined after the hearing to comment on that assertion.

“ICE knew that he had been deported five times,” Mr. Mirkarimi said. “You would have thought he met a threshold that he required a court order or a warrant. They did not do that.”

San Francisco is one of dozens of cities and counties across the country that don’t fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The city goes so far as to promote itself as a “sanctuary” for people in the country illegally.

Mayor Ed Lee issued a statement saying city policy was never intended to protect “repeat, serious and violent felons.” He asked for federal and local agencies to review what happened.

Ms. Steinle’s death has offered ammunition to GOP critics of Obama administration policies, including presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who has cited it to justify his claims that many immigrants entering the country illegally are criminals.


At the same time it plays into a larger, politically charged immigration debate between federal authorities and local jurisdictions.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com

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